There's times when i'm the worst instrument for my
curiosity.

    "Alphabet City"

What do the spiders say,
Bela of the consummate composure?
A SHOWER WILL REMOVE MUCH,
BUT PART OF YOUR DEEDS

CLINGS FOREVER;
IS DEEPER THAN SKIN;
WALKS AHEAD OF YOU
WITH A SWARTHY LAMP.

IT'S BEST
TO ALLOW FOR CORIOLIS
IF YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE
COMMAND OF DISTANCE.

1987

Thought--is the permanence of archetypal images similar
to the logical evolution through arbitrary rules of the chess
openings? --Such that some pretty bizarre positions get accepted
as standard, because they once were played in a game & turned
out to be the best moves for both sides?

   "The Milestone by the Rabbit-Burrow (on Yell'ham Hill)

In my loamy nook
As I dig my hole
I observe men look
At a stone, and sigh
As they pass it by
To some far goal.

Something it says
To their glancing eyes
That must distress
The frail and lame,
And the strong of frame
Gladden or surprise.

Do signs on its face
Declare how far
Feet have to trace
Before they gain
Some blest champaign
Where no gins are?"

--Hardy

I go through my days with this abstract distress, yet no less
palpable for being based on events far from my direct
experience. It is like, i say, a child in a small town who finds
out his dad is a serial killer, --& his father is the chief of
police. No, rather, it's like i was ten years a paraplegic, only
to discover fire ants have built a nest in my left foot...

Don't you just love those heist movies where they spend $10 million in
high-tech weaponry in order to rip off $1 million in diamonds or what-
ever? Isn't that just like the US military...? Or a homeowner who, in
order to debug the house, sets off a bug bomb that coats every
surface with poison that they'll spend the next year absorbing through
their skin with every thing they touch?

Listening to: Natacha Atlas.