When shall we three meet again?
         -Macbeth

"When will we three come together again?"
    "Around the seventh hour, at the bridge's dam."
        "At the central pier."
            "I extinguish the flame."
"So do I."

                         "I come from the North."
"And I from the South."
                         "And I from the sea."

"Hey, that'll be a ringaround.
And the bridge must sink to the ground."

"And the train that enters the bridge,
Around the seventh hour?"
                      "Well, it must go over the ridge."
"The ridge?"

                    "Waste, waste
Is all that man makes!"

                *                 *
                         *

On the north side, the bridge's building -
All windows facing south,
And the bridge people never resting
And anxiously facing south,

Looking and waiting whether not a light
Across the water says "I'll come",
"I'll come, despite storm and night,
I, the train from Edinburgh."

And the bridge man now: "I see its shine
On the other side. It must be the train.
Well, mother, away with that anxious dream,
Our Johnie comes and wants his tree
And all the lights still on that tree,
Light everything as if for the Holy Christ -

Who will come twice for us this year -
And in eleven minutes' time he'll be close."

And the train it was. Past the southern tower
It puffs struggling against the gale
And Johnie says: "Now, it's only the bridge

Yet what can happen, we'll force across the ridge.
A strong boiler, doubly steaming,
They will win such a struggle.
And however it rages, wrestles, and runs,
We'll defeat it, the element.

And our pride is our bridge;
I laugh, do I think of times begone,
Of all that misery and all that trouble
With the wretched old fishing-boat;
How I spent some such dear Christmas night

In the ferry master's house'
And saw in our windows the clear light
And counted and couldn't be there."

        On the south side, the bridge's building -
All windows facing south
And the bridge people never resting
And anxiously facing south;
For angrier now the winds' play,
And now, as if fire from the skies fell,
There's a glow shooting down in splendour
Above the water below ... And again it's night.

                *                 *
                         *


"When will we three come together again?"
        "At midnight, on the mountain ridge."
                    "On the high heath, at the alder's trunk."

"I'll come."
               "So I'll do."
                                "I tell you the number."
"And I the names."

                                "And I the pain."
"Hey!
        Like to splinters the wooden structure broke.
                    "Waste, waste
Is all that man makes!"