Comes now the Far Wanderer,
"Where ha'e ye been and
What ha'e ye seen?"

"I ha'e seen the whole world, sir,
and I tell ya it's a terrible great thing,
all covered with mountains, oceans, lands and
seas that no man, no woman, no child-man or
child-woman could ever say enough about it!"

"Where ha'e ye been? What ha'e ye seen?"

"I seen a monkey was King! A fiercer
thing than a Kockadoo wid his mammy!
I sawed a farthingale on a far-off isle,
All covered wid da boody thing!
And,
I saw a man all dressed in clothes,
Knickers, boater, and tie,
Silver sleeves he had,
And windjammers look in his piggy eyes!
His name was Grat!  A snuff-dealer in the
Arcade at Delhi!"

"Where ha'e ye been, again?"

"I tell ye!  I ha'e beens about the world!
O it's a place alright, and the stars...the
stars...the many pointed brilliantly-hued
all painted up in the darkling skies,
those stars!! I tellin' ya,
I seen the holt wold and it's a mighty
place, a mighty place
where a losted man might find hisself,
and a founded man might founder furtherer
in it!!"

What ha'e ye seen, what ha'e ye seen?"

"I say I seen the whole Orb of Things!
I seen what no humimit peepers seen so much
as to blind a toady fool!
On my backhand in 'zambique I wrote the words
backwards wid a goosey pen:

'I Been There' on me backhand I rode it with
a goosey pen, so drunken was I the Wanderer
Farer than any Far Wander had ever betaken
a man-come-fool-come-to-his-home-in-the-
unsensible-fashion-of-
-of-
well, now I did telled ya did I not?  Now
that's enuf for any man to say, wid da stars
in his head and all and all and All the
Allness that could ever betake a man and
bring him to his no-home bed on the floor!"

"But where, but what?"

"I toad ya, I toad ya,
it was in that dizzy be-deviled sacred way
of knowin' almighty Gyud hissen or herren
self, and it don't make no difference
when you get right up to IT!  Right up to IT,
I'n tellin' ya now.  I got right up to the
veriest face of it, and it was the end of it,
don't ya know?  Right in the face of it, and
ya know what that Almightiest, Most Powerful-
est, Most Knowingest Power of Powers said to
this poor bean?  This her Voice it said:
"I'm tellin' ya, that's The End of The World
and the Beginning Beyond End, to hear a Voice
like that, Right from the Face of Everything,
and I was there. O Gyud I was there!  Praises!
Praises!  And here it is: your milk sir,
fresh from the Very stars and all..........!"

- Michael Warren Eliseuson