Why have you come?

I have no time for your breathless words. You say you want to investigate the night.

Then Go! Fly!

If iridescent wings call to you in the pungent darkness, if they whisper your name, then go now, leap, do it! Do you think they will wait for your convenience?

Your fear is useless. You will, or you will not. You will be gifted, you will find what is to be found, or you will fall, and be crushed on rocks you cannot see until they find you. There are no certainties in my country. No IRA's. No Savings Bonds. No bungee cords.

Or sit in your chair, with your imaginings of what might be. And you will say,

"Well, tommorrow I will go."

Do you suppose they will come again? They may not. And the night will gleam, radient as the moon, on the other side of your door, a door you no longer can open. Sit in your room, then, until you are too old to fly. You will forget that you ever could.

Caw! Fly into the dark, and take what is to be had there!

Fight well what is to be fought! There are beauties there, shaped and livened by all your passions - they will wrap their arms around you, they will tell you their stories, they will love you, they will gift you, and they will wound you.

And there are horrors there as wel - they also will come to you. Go to both of them with power, take what you will.

In my country, there is no certainty.

You are not safe.

You will never be.

Jean Zirger as "Crowman" 2003