Once upon a time, when men and
women hurtled through the air on metal wings, when they wore webbed feet and walked on the bottom
of the sea, learning the speech
of whales and the songs
of the dolphins, when pearly - fleshed and jewelled
apparitions of Texan herdsmen and houris shimmered in the dusk on Nicaraguan hillsides, when folk in Norway and Tasmania in
dead of winter could dream
of fresh strawberries, dates, guavas and passion fruits and find them spread next morning on their tables, there was a
woman who was largely irrelevant, and therefore happy.