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NOVEMBER EVENING
He sits calmly in the cornerof the restaurant redolent with curryand cardamom.He smiles, unseen,his third eyes staresdeeply felt on the backof my neck.Her eyes draw me inoffering a serenity,she smiles freelyand I recall the parkin the shadow of the mountainsthe soft touch of velvetand the empressalongside the fool.It is too soon donebut the soft furof…
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SO WE ARE
She says “We’re going to be movingback up north,” and you can seefrom the scowl on his face that thisis not an idea he likes at all, buta battle he knows better than to fight.He has been through so manymedical crises and he shows signsof the toll they have taken on him,but you cannot see…
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ALBANY, THURSDAY NIGHT
It is a cheap moteljust off the highway,across from the mallnow almost empty of cars,a room not much biggerthan a bed, a desk anda small nightstand.The diet cola is sweatingdespite the breezeof the air conditioner,the television flickers.I have left a wake up callhoping I arise beforethe jangle of the phoneknowing I will not.Corso lies on…
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CASTLES
Standing along the stone fencein the late afternoon shadowof Auchnanure Castle, as friendsmade their way up the narrowstone stairs to gaze out overthe Irish field in which we stood.We watched horses in the adjacent fielddash wildly toward us as if saying“damn the old stones, here is the photofor which you came to Ireland.” Orsaying “let…
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ALBLANY THURSDAY NIGHT
It is a cheap moteljust off the highway,across from the mallnow almost empty of cars,a room not much biggerthan a bed, a desk anda small nightstand.The diet cola is sweatingdespite the breezeof the air conditioner,the television flickers.I have left a wake up callhoping I arise beforethe jangle of the phone,knowing I will not.Corso lies on…
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HOME
I don’t know what I expected to findstanding on the corner of a residential streetin Charleston, West Virginia, the domeof the capitol peering up in the distance.That is not surprising, the orange brick homewas much larger than I had assumed, but youlived there only a few years before leavingQuarrier Street to start a life of…
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WITH THANKS
On his first business trip to Japan, what he wanted most, after buying the mandatory gifts for his wife, child and admin assistant, and being blinded by the neon lights of Shinjuku and deafened by the sound of the pachinko parlors, was to find Mr. Roboto and thank him. It was something he felt he…
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TIMING
Time travel has becomea standard trope of science fiction,a protagonist going back in timeby intent or circumstance, fearfulto take any action for thatmight change the universeand the future as it would have beencollapses and is replaced bysomething wholly different.But this is where logic fails,for the traveler from the futurecannot affect the futureor he could not…
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ON LEARNING PAINFULLY
I cannot begin to tell youhow glad I am that I neverfollowed through on the ideaof flying to Lisbon and searchingfor you or some record of you.After all, she told the adoptionagency when she gave me upthat you were a Portuguese Jewshe met in Washington, D.C.so the odds were good you couldbe found in the…
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OMOTESANDO
When I would visit TokyoI often went to Shibuya where,on the second floor of an old buildingon Omotesando, a block printmerchant shared space withsouvenir vendors and artists.I would pick out prints that werereasonably priced, imagingfor a moment the were by Hokusaior Hiroshige, although I knew whatthey would cost if I could find them.Still, I’d carefully…