A Revisiting (Part VIII) "111307"

this came about from a dream, actually...

"...i want to be an astronaut. i want to go into space for a year and live on the space station up there with the other astronauts. we would do experiments like seeing if fungus could grow in outer space or if plants could survive or things like that. i don't really know yet. i would sleep right-side up in a bean bag like you see them do in the movies. and after a year was over i would come back down to earth and tell all of my friends about what it was like living in outer space and they would all be amazed by it. and maybe after i got settled back in i could go and give speeches to school children about being an astronaut and how fun it is. maybe i would marry an astronaut woman and maybe we could get married in space! but that would probably be impossible to get married in space. and then when i got even older i could go back into space one more time. not for a year like before but maybe just to see the earth again from above. it could be like my, my duck-duck music. song."
"do you mean 'swan song'?"
"yeah. my 'swan song'. that's what it could be like."
"where did you hear that?"
"i don't know. i think my dad said it once when i was younger. back when he was still around. does it make sense, the way i used it?"
"yes. i suppose it does."

"The silver Swan, who living had no Note,
when Death approached, unlocked her silent throat.
Leaning her breast upon the reedy shore,
thus sang her first and last, and sang no more:
'Farewell, all joys! O Death, come close mine eyes!
'More Geese than Swans now live, more Fools than Wise.'"

-Orlando Gibbon's madrigal "The Silver Swan"