Bloom

The Hill of Howth During Horse Show Week 1972 June 16 is Bloomsday when in a world defying time which stately fat Buck Mulligan starts off with a swim and Stephen Daedalus feigns teaching and plays with his senses on the sand and Leopold Bloom goes to Paddy’s fun- eral at Glasnevin, eats a gorgonzola sandwich, drinks a burgun- dy, and bu-bu-belches gloriously before Gerty McDowell puts on a show on a shore and in the afternoon Blazes Boylan gigs gigs gigs to Molly Bloom to picnic on Plumtree’s potted meat and other comes- tibles but she the eternal female gets the last words of flowing memory and desire and yes Leopold may find a new fatherhood which Stephen more snot than son may still sneer at because it’s already another day and that’s what you do to time in fiction unleashing again memories of what books do to readers I wonder, Ron, what’ll you be reading this year but thinking I’ll skip the cheese and quaff Guinness or sip bourbon instead but still I will be remembering the Hill of Howth was magic in the soft evening air of the horse show when Sally and I rode up there for drinks and a night’s cup of talkin’ with Charly Stefan and his lovely wife.