(For a better experience, read while listening to Enya’s “May It Be”. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8u4VLk0iTI)
James: How pretty she is! She’s always in my view at the office, and I admire her every day.
Rose: She’s green.
James: Rose, I think you envy her.
Chang: I wonder what you think of this passing year.
James: Who? You mean for Tina?
Chang: Yeah.
Zahra: Interesting. James, I thought she was Libertina?
James: Still is. Tina’s a short form of Libertina.
Zahra: Hmm… A good thing you took out the “Liber” part as I’ve noticed she isn’t so eager as before to welcome “tired ones” into her home.
Chang: So true, and I understand her.
James: She still does, but not the ‘refuse of shores’. To your question Chang, this past year was a good one for her.
Rose: Ha! I see that you aren’t looking at her through the same window as others. What curtain do you have raised!
James: Agreed and my view of her is clearer. You are upset that she’s staying away from taking “refuse” (among other reasons).
Zahra: Refuse. What a word!
Chang: Actually, James didn’t make the word up. The Lady Lazarus said it first.
James: Rose opened her home to the “huddled masses”. How’s that working for you?
Rose: They “breathe free”.
James: Yeah, they take up your air.
Zahra: I think Chang should hold the “lamp” now. Tina’s home isn’t paradise anymore.
Rose: And neither is mine.
James: At last, she admits it. These “tempest-tossed” ruin paradise. But sure Chang, you are welcome to take the “lamp”. I could talk to Tina on your behalf, you know?
Chang: I have a lamp already, it’s lit. And my doors aren’t made of ‘gold’. Can’t you hold the lamp, Zahra?
Rose: And Zahra, don’t you agree its best these “masses” didn’t go across seas in the first place?
James: Zahra, oh Zahra. An appropriate question for you.
Zahra: I think we all know why it happens and who the culprits are.
(A raised curtain version of this narrative is available at: Once Upon a Month – Raised Curtains)