"Tango 19" These are not in order, obviously,
but the story is not told in order either.
"And kneeling at the edge of the transparent sea,
I shall shape for myself a new heart from salt and mud."
"A wife is in the grip of being.
Easy to say, why not give up on this.
But let's suppose your husband and a certain dark woman
like to meet at a bar in early afternoon.
Love is not conditional.
Living is very conditional.
The wife positions herself in an enclosed verandah
across the street.
Watches the dark woman reach out to touch his temple, as if
filtering something onto it.
Watches him bend slightly towards the woman then back.
They are both serious.
Their seriousness racks her.
People who can be serious together, it goes deep.
They have a bottle of mineral water on the table between them
and two glasses.
No inebriates necessary.
When did he develop this Puritan new taste?
A cold ship moves out of harbor somewhere way inside the wife
and slides off towards the flat, gray horizon.
Not a bird, not a breath in sight."