Poems For ''happy Days'' By Samuel Beckett Poem by Marieta Maglas

1
Winnie is still a woman
in her 50s
needing cleaning rituals
because she cannot
sleep. She prays
only for her well
because Willie sleeps
continuously
and he cannot sin
while dreaming. Winnie is
a character
needing stars
like Brooke Adams
to come into life. Winnie needs
this play much more than
anyone else. The characters
played in the theatres
can be real or imagined,
but the actors
make them all real
in the minds
of the audience.

Winnie is buried
in the scorched earth,
but she doesn't lose
her hope while

continuing to pray. No,
her prayers are not
simple at all,

she is prepared
to become a holy reciter
especially when
the bells ring
for everything
that can rise
and doesn't rise, but sinks.


Maybe an interminable sleeping is a gift,
or maybe it is not.

Why do the people need to think?

A chirping may mean a disembodied head.
Willie is a sleeper
having as a unique goal in life
the satisfaction
and he has nothing
to be thankful for.

Tony Shalhoub played
the role of Willie when
he created an image
in front of the face
to roll it down
into the abyss
of the play
and when Brooke said,
'This is a happy day! '
***
2
Winnie thinks she has enough.
She is thankful
to God
for the bottle of the red medicine
from which she starts
to drink. A bottle of medicine
is not a revolver
to shoot a man
in the head,
but it can still be
a weapon.
Maybe she wants
an ending,
not to be cured

and maybe that red
substance trickling
from Willie's head
is not real blood,
but medicine.

Willie will think and express
his ideas. In the still air,
he is involved in reading.


It is the time when the priests die
strangely while
their sermons mean necessity.

Unfortunately,
people can receive
only news belonging
to headlines.

The actors use
art,
gestures,
and speeches
to explain
the 'senselessness'
of this new human
condition.
***
3

Winnie cannot win
the prize of purity
while being blocked in between
genuine things.

It seems that Winnie
is not ready
to win or to hear Willie
talking, she doesn't even need
a priest.

She is happy,
but she is afraid

either of missing
any communication
in the absence of Willie
either of her metamorphosis
through enlightening.

The return to his hole is a crawl,
not at work,
and maybe a laugh.

''Happy Days'' determined
Tony and Brooke
to complete
a long journey
from Los Angeles's Theater
at Boston Court
to The Flea Theater
in Lower Manhattan.


Winnie doesn't have to search for
her inner hole.
She has a parasol above her head
standing on the verge of burning.

Maybe she needs holy thinking,
but she has questions only for her man.
Maybe she doesn't
need any advice.


It is written in the Bible
that the man must work
hard to be forgiven
by The Almighty,
but never during sleep.

This kind of sleep can be
a haven to wake up in Heaven.

Winnie thinks to sing
while using failing words,
those words that are emptied
of meaning
while singing
until becoming a possession.

When is a word considered lost?

Winnie needs some
repeated readings
until losing
all meanings in an irrational world
of words.
***
4

Maybe ' The Merry Widow'
by Franz Lehár
is not only a waltz duet
from operetta,
but also a hypothetical goal,
and, for sure,
Winnie wins this dance
until the end.

Brook has a godly grace while
playing this part of the act.
Winnie sees no reason
to sing or to pray
any longer
in this inhabited emptiness
where God is not
present,
but Willie is still
a dreamer

in searching for a job
while not being capable
of crawling.

Using lipstick and a hat,
Brooke keeps up with
the cheeriest fashion.

Maybe it is Winnie who wants
a background for her tolerant smile.

Willie has a will to crawl
while his wife is covered up
to her neck
in the mound,

and while they start
to sing
'I Love You So'.

They have nothing to undress in the middle
of the night.

Why do so many people
think that all they need is
money to be happy?

Poem by Marieta Maglas