it seemed like everyone was bombing rome during the war.

turn off the lights, go to your shelter, maybe you will live.

you thought you may have missed something.  stalin playing games with tomatoes.

i found it helpful to slow motion,

before the frescoes disappeared.

i was sad and confused for a time.

i took solace in watching a drummer in silhouette over and over...

were you melancholy?  something was missing?

there were strange shadows in my hallway at night.  they were harmless.  they shuffled around.

then things began to unravel.  i was paranoid.  i didn't feel like singing hymns.

but something happened in that taxi that night.  that uncanny, glowing boy was in the middle of it. 

that would be blake.  he thought he was going somewhere.  i don't even know if it happened,

milosz says that blake died singing hymns.

he wasn't reaching for life.

harry lime was in a trap.  he couldn't see the beauty of the tunnel.  he wished he had a mask, a funny nose.

a nervous breakdown giving almost instant birth to a clown spinning the ball, spinning the world.

and the narrations of silent movies moving in and out, moving in and out.

with ordinary notes sliding under my door,

i want to sleep and dream of a deep sleep,

even in our sleep, we dream of conflict.

we seem to lack the imagination for peace.

though my instinct tells me that there are those out there who don't.  

i've gotten accustomed to the faces.  people seem to like me...

he will lose her because he wanted her too much.

women like anna schmidt haunt me, the way they leave a man in the dust.

anna schmidt walked right past him.
she left the screen.  

greene and drieser loved maughm.  i don't why.  graham greene was better than the both of them.

every time you leave me for a minute,

it is like good-bye.

i like to believe it means that you can't live without me.

you always said circumstance and you were right.  we never had a chance.

you told them that they had no idea how very unusual you may be.  you told them, circumstances.

the test results say that i am unusual.  the doctors ask me why do i think this is so.

nine

the eye glancing one way.

the eye glancing the other way.

six

they gave me another test yesterday.  i never saw it as an iris.  i never saw that  iris.

they will be so transparent by then.  there will not be any there, there.

you know that they know.  people will soon be voluntarily carrying tracking devices.

a puppet?  more likely a marionette.  not the puppeteer.

you are seeing ahead of yourself again.  spring lake hotel in new jersey.  garden club.  hydrangeas.

is he the one changing our faces?  it is more likely that he is a politician.

the man between mao and stalin.  have you seen him before?  is he a magician?