April 1, 2002
A Rainbow for Lunch
Oh you can eat all them greens, all right (With oil and vinegar), perhaps Adding the violets (which, unlike Nasturtiums, won't taste very good); And the oranges (peeling them carefully), […]
April 1, 2002
A Man Wanted to Buy a Cat
The man wanted to buy the cat but couldn’t because his wife was allergic to it. The allergy produced sneezing fits and watery eyes, and worsened at each exposure. Neither […]
April 1, 2002
On Sitting down to Read Shakespeare Once Again
One can imagine a typology of the pleasures of reading—or of the readers of pleasure …—Roland Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text 63 Of course, many of us do not […]
April 1, 2002
Three Poems in the Chinese Manner
1. Her stone grey eyes like liquid mercury While light from blue waters rippled over her face She raised her hand in which a peony trembled And smiled—a tear sparked […]
April 1, 2002
Editor’s Notes
We were saddened to learn, in January, of the passing of Christer Strömholm, the extraordinary Swedish photographer. Less well known in the United States than elsewhere in the world, Strömholm’s […]
April 1, 2002
The Ham Theory
“Tell me what this is,” Tori says, lifting her fork to Elliott’s mouth. Her fingers graze his new beard. Their tour guide recommended this restaurant, at the top of a […]
April 1, 2002
Crossing the South China Sea as Analgesia
One day we will all be like this—the boat's sickening pitch, & the delicateness needless, consumable. How everything here naturally passes into night, a room w/o walls. Could mindlessness keep […]
April 1, 2002
The Cat with Rabies at the Grave of Keats
In Rome, architecture crawls with baroque doodads. Even the Protestant cemetery sports broken glass stuck atop its stone walls. Inside, tombstones aspraddle as British teeth. "Here lies one whose name […]
April 1, 2002
Beside Himself
A boy clompclomping like Frankenstein's monster, trying out some new boots, goofing at the shoe store when—bam!—one of those tilted floor-level mirrors freezes him. It seems a sheer vertiginous tunnel […]
April 1, 2002
From “Girls”
You were in Pusan. When you flew in, the port was hidden by a cloud. You couldn’t see the city at all, only the tops of mountains. The man to […]
April 1, 2002
Clemency
Over the trough, the long face of the horse, and croaking dead center in a hoofprint, a toad—all the while the redwing blackbirds drilling their whistly bells. February, and a […]
April 1, 2002
Blue Lotus
Wake up and the morning's quiet, the trees stand undivided blue. The new moon hangs like a little boat that cannot sink. Tell me what you're thinking. I am all […]