This, I tell you, is the end

THIS I T EL L YOU IS THE EN D

JA N E GL EN N I E

the hills step off into whiteness. people or stars

regard me sadly, I disappoint them

the wholesomeness of rural space and privacy

almost I am beginning to think that he is cheap; which as Euclid said about many things which are much less attractive than horses, is absurd

a dress to be insulted in, a dress to weather the ending

there is a minute at the end of it a minute, a dewdrop. how far is it?

it exhausts me to watch you flickering like that, wrinkly and clear red, like the skin of a mouth

M I’m super-energetic and I have loads of ideas, and they put together to make a really creepy scary thing M Oh nearly a whole side has come off. This is awesome

M Dad, do you think the logs are, like, attached together. Because those ones …

J Yeah…

M …that are at the top they seem to just …

J I think they are … they are just wedged in there… I don’t think they are actually attached but then the weight of … the weight of one on the next one M I can see the sticks at the bottom R I wonder where all the wood has gone? How does it incinerate?

C It goes to …

M Ashes!

C … heat, light, sound, smoke R So basically… destroys C It changes. It can’t er…

M Can wood turn into smoke?

C That’s what it is. Everything always changes into something else

Wood is made up of… sunlight and nutrients from the ground

M Like plastic that can melt and turn into liquid M Steam R Dominic? You know the thing they teach you in year 4. About a solid can’t turn into a gas.

D Yeah?

R It can. Because wood turns into smoke C Smoke is actually particles in the air.

M So if you breathe in smoke, you breathe in wood R Dad, what’s a fire then?

C How do you mean?

R Is fire a solid, liquid or a gas?

C Er D I don’t think… no, it’s not a material.

Materials are either solid, liquid or gases R I want to see it collapse again D And, Rupert, in school with liquids.

How do you draw liquid particles?

R I dunno D You should … oh yeah. Because you’re not key stage…

D I can’t see the … oh well…

D Because, when I was at school, Mrs Rimmell taught me that solids are all in one line. Then liquids are kind of spaced apart and then gases are rib spaced apart. Then… ah… liquids join M Baby sun … baby sun.

M It’s a baby sun.

baby sun … baby sun

how do you draw liquid

particles?

R Dad… I wonder what you would see if you took a, wait, not a satellite view, but an aerial view of England when all the fires are at their time?

C Umm R Would you see the fires? Would you see like, red dots?

C Yeah R That’d be cool M Dad… how are stars formed? Is it mini explosions in space?

C Massive explosions M What?

C Massive explosions in space M I thought it was mini .. go poop!

Poop!

D No M Poop!

R Stars aren’t tiny Miranda M Poop!

D They’re massive R Stars aren’t tiny pinpricks D They’re massive M I thought … I thought stars were SMALLER. Like the size of my head.

R Stars are the size of the sun D Uh-huh R … and some are bigger, some are a bit smaller R Because the sun IS a star M But I thought the sun was a massive star

I thought stars were SMALLER, like the size of my head

R No, the sun …

D No its just a normal sized star R Not particularly big M Wha…hat?

D You learn about it M I thought stars were little and the sun was a massive star R No C Stars are far away suns D Really really really really highly really high…

D Really highly extremely extremely …

R Millions of light years away D Uh-huh R In a galaxy far, far away D And so if Star Wars did exist then they would see the sun as another star R Yeah. If aliens did exist their sun would be half of one of their …

D It would be really weird if the Star Wars Chronicles were happening right now

really highly extremely extremely

D Like ooh.. transport and just give them the whole volume of what happened from Episode I all the way to Episode VII. Right Aniken: do not become evil. Kill Emperor Palpatine and there won’t be Revenge of the Sith. ‘Cos that’s NOT a good film R It is D It’s not good R They are good D No, most of the Jedi Council gets killed or chucked off a fifty storey hundred…

R But that’s cool D Getting someone thrown off a fifty hundred foot storey building R That is cool R Dad… that is cool, probably whatever it is … Jedi D And its Mace Windu. The guy with the … the only one with the purple light sabre R I don’t really care R Even if it was… umm…

D And Aniken becomes a Sith Lord R Even if it was… wait… wait, wait

wait wait wait

D And Padme dies. And Anaken and err… and Anaken and Leia are born.

Ooh, yeah, mummy’s born. Yay, I’m born! Hi Mum R So Dominic. What I take from this … you don’t really like Star Wars D No. I like every single Star Wars, apart from Episode III R I thought you didn’t like Episode IV C He doesn’t like IV either?

D That’s because I’ve seen it too many times. I’m bored.

R Dominic. Don’t sit there because I can’t see the fire.

D I like Episode III R Huh! You just said you didn’t like Episode III D I said II R No! You said III D I said… I said I like Episode II

yay, I’m born

R Oh. Not just then D Mmm hmm R I like Episode II. I like Episode I. It has the Gungans D Yeah R And it has a lot of big battles. And I like the race… pod race D Oh yeah, that’s cool

target destroyed

ash, ash— you poke and stir. flesh, bone, there is nothing there—

THIS, I TELL YOU, IS THE END © Jane Glennie, 2016 www.janeglennie.co.uk Edition one

Initiated in association with Degrees of Freedom ‘Uninvited’ – Six artists transgress six public art spaces in a spirit of joyous dissent and resistance 16/17 April 2016 | www.degreesof-freedom.com

Text extracts from Ariel | Sylvia Plath Moonraking | A. G. Street Conversations beside the beacon | The Leigh family and my own writing With thanks to Louise Anderson for photographs of myself