Count the Pigeons Count the Pebbles

I count the pebbles, I count the pigeons; for every pigeon there’s two pebbles: a pebble to pigeon ratio of 2:1

I’m not comfortable with the first composition so, I alter my position, so that the numbers add up, so that the pigeon to pebble ratio is 1:1

Then I get to thinking about a shotgun. How many pellets are there in a shotgun cartridge… all to kill one bird? And I must re-read the stone-sucking sequence in Malloy. I still remember where I was when I found out Beckett played cricket. Was Malloy a cricket umpire, one who’d suffered a close-range hit on the head from a cricket ball? And do cricket umpires still keep stones in their pockets… do they keep changing them from one pocket to another, over and over again, over after over? And pigeons, or is it seagulls, aren’t they sometimes hit – it is true, I’ve seen film of it - by cricket balls?