The Ballad of the 46A. i.m. John Ryan When you're feeling the urge to retreat and to flee from work that's a cartload of ess haitch one tee when people are plastic - the plastic is cracked, and barely believable fiction is fact - when you need to meander, to rest from the race (be it human or rat), to explore a new space; gift-wrap your troubles & throw them away & take the great trip on the 46A. Thru leafy suburbia, starting from docks, up round the mountain and down by the rocks; past much that's familiar & little that's strange - MacCormack's of Mounttown - Tandoori, Deansgrange - thru Foxrock, Stillorgan, & Galloping Green it waddles & lurches & sways like a queen, swings thru Dun Laoghaire & parks near the quay - there's a life and a half in the 46A. O there's ones that are hostile to every illusion excepting their own - not averse to collusion they infiltrate everywhere, stamp on dissent in the name of a vandalous higher intent. But no pseudo-science can marry that route, that *mystery tour on the by-road to truth. If lightning struck twice they'd explain it away, but they'll never! account for - the 46A. Ye parents who puzzle the meaning of life - & how does it happen ye're still man'n'wife after years of contention? - the kids want to know not how did they come but what way did ye GO! Is there life without love, is there life without sex? Oblige them by stating, ye pair of old wrecks: It's never that simple, we'll put it this way: there's love, and there's sex, and there's 46A. The party is over and time has run out fond expectations are all up the spout. You're on your last legs, and your money's all spent, you can't afford fags, let alone the week's rent; and the X-ray said - buster, you haven't a hope... Don't lie down aisy, don't sit there and mope; it's round the next corner, it's headed your way - where there's life there's a chance of a 46A! [The 46A is an improbably eccentric bus. It’s not so much that it has a mind of its own; it reputedly has two or three minds, none of which would appear to be its own.] |
