Murray Edmond
Setting the Seal on NZ Poetry
ACT ONE
A wharf.
A Young Man comes with a bundle of books under his arm.
He stops at the end of the wharf.
He drops the bundle of books into the water.
Young Man: Not a single copy sold.
ACT TWO
The same wharf, some years later.
A Young Woman comes to the end of the wharf.
Young Woman: When I was young and very wise…
She jumps off the end of the wharf.
ACT THREE
Under the water beneath the wharf the Young Woman has found a copy of
the Young Man’s book and is reading it.
Young Woman: If I had known about this book, I never would have jumped.
ACT FOUR
The Young Man, no longer now a young man, has returned to the wharf
where he threw away his unsold books.
Young Man no Longer Young: One reader would have been enough.
He jumps.
ACT FIVE
A Seal clambers up the side of the wharf and flops onto the planks.
Seal: My body bedded in sea — midmost wave
after drear days I felt again the sun
The Young Man (young again!) and the Young Woman (forever young) are
seen walking together and reading a book on the wharf behind the Seal, who
does not see them there.
Young Woman: Did you hear a seal bark?
CURTAIN
