JOYCE CAROL OATES
53
giants once again, we will conquer the world
The Wall, one
must assume, has been erected solely to prevent this, the fulfillment
of our destiny: The Wall is an invention of our enemies and must be
surmounted. )
But now, today, this sunny morning, what of today?-my
eighteenth birthday? A helmeted guard has poked his head out of his
sentry box and is waving to me in my hiding place. Yes? Yes?
Perhaps he knows it is my birthday? 1 stand slowly, blinking. The
sunlight is fierce. The guard has taken pity on me, perhaps, and is
waving me forward . Come stand in the shadow of The Wall. Come
press your overheated cheek against The Wall's cool side ... For the
first time 1 can see fine cracks in The Wall, and weeds growing
lavishly at its base. (I have never been so close before.) Come closer,
have no fear, long before you were born The Wall was, and forever
will The Wall endure.
PRAXIS
INTERNATIONAL
Editors: Richard J. Bernstein
&
Mihailo Markovic
Committed to goals of
democratic socialism, this
quarterly journal carries on the
work of the Yugoslav journal
PRAXIS on a broader
international front.
Subscription rates
&
sample
copies from : Journals Dept,
Basil Blackwell Publisher,
108 Cowley Road, Oxford,
OX41JF England quoting
ref . PR/81 .
Basil Blackwell' Oxford
