Thirst (Dancer)

Dancer says

He was kind and brave to me. He meant well. Yet I wish now he had let me die.

I would have been way down in the cold green water. I would have been sleeping, coldly sleeping. While now my brain is scorched with sun-fire and dream-fire. And I am going mad. Your eyes shine with a wild flame at times–and that sailor’s are horrible with strangeness–and mine see great drops of blood that dance upon the sea. Yes, we are all mad.

God! Oh God! Must this be the end of all? I was coming home, home after years of struggling, home to success and fame and money. And I must die out here on a raft like a mad dog.