but there wasnt just a hell of a lot of actual forward motion despite this hymn to possibility. The seraglio turned out to be a Butler building too, much like mine only vaster of course, that son of a bitch. I spent a little while admiring that fine red-painted steel that you can put the pieces together of out of a catalogue and set her down on your slab and be barbecuing your flank steak from the A.& P. by five oclock on the same day. The Pasha didnt have any great big doors in his, just one little tee-ninesy door with a picture of an unfed-recently Doberman pasted on it, I took that as a hint and I thought Constanze, Constanze, how could you be so dumb?
rollin
How I miss you
Chorus:
rollin
Chorus:
Ever since I let you go.
What you doin in that se-rag-li-o?
I been sleepin on paper towels
rollin
The thing is, and I hate to admit it, Constanzes a little dumb. Shes not so dumb as a lady I once knew who thought the Mark of Zorro was an N, but shes not perfect. You tell her you heard via the jungle drums that ther九九藏书es a vacancy in Willie Jake Johnsons bed and her eyes will cut to the side just for a moment, which means shes thinking. Shes not conservative. Im some kind of an artist, but Im conservative. Mine is the art of the possible, plus two. She, on the contrary, spent many years as a talented and elegant country-music groupie. She knows things I do not know. Happy dust is $1,900 an ounce now, I hear tell -- shes tasted it, I havent. Its a small thing, but irritating. Shes dumb in what she knows, if you follow me.
Oh Constanze oh Constanze
Well, I motored out to the seraglio, got blindsided on the Freeway by two hundred thousand guys trying to get home from their work at the rat-poison factories, all two hundred thousand tape decks playin the same thing, some kind of roll-on-down-the-road song
rollin
I cant understand this. She is so great. When we go partying she always takes care to dance with Bill Crays four-year-old girl, whos a fool for dancing. She made me read War and Peace, which struck me at first glanc九九藏书
e as terrible thick. She renews my subscription to the Texas Observer every year. She contributes regularly to the United Way and got gassed in great cities a time or two while expressing her opinion of the recent war. Shes kind to rat-poison salesmen. Shes afraid of the dark. She took care of me that time I had my little psychotic episode. She is so great. Once I saw her slug a guy in a supermarket who was whacking his kid, his legal right, with undue enthusiasm. The really dreadful thought, to me, is that her real might be the real one.
Chorus:
What you doin in that se-rag-li-o?
I been poppin Darvon and mothballs
Oh Constanze oh Constanze
Sleepin on paper towels and
Well, I opened the door. The Doberman came at me raging and snarling and generally carrying on in the way he felt was expected of him. I threw him a fifty-five-pound reinforced-concrete pork chop which knocked him silly. I spoke to Constanze. We used to walk down the street together bumping our hipbones together in joy, before God and everybody. I九九藏书网 wanted to float in the air again some feeling of that. It didnt work. Im sorry. But I guess, as the architects say, theres no use crying over spilt marble. She will undoubtedly move on and up and down and around in the world, New York, Chicago, and Temple, Texas, making everything considerably better than it was, for short periods of time. We adventured. Thats not bad.
What you doin in that se-rag-li-o?
Ever since I let you go.
Drinkin Sea & Ski
I was sitting in my brand-new Butler building, surrounded by steel of high quality folded at ninety-degree angles. The only thing prettier than ladies is an I-beam painted bright yellow. I told em I wanted a big door. A big door in front where a girl could hide her car if she wanted to evade the gaze of her husband the rat-poison salesman. You ever been out with a rat-poison salesman? They are fine fellows with little red eyes.
The Pasha is a Plymouth dealer, actually. He has this mysterious power over people and events which is called ten million dollars a year, gro九_九_藏_书_网ss. About the only thing we share in the way of common humanity is four welded-steel artichokes, which he bought right from the studio, which is where he saw Constanze. The artichoke is a beautiful form, maybe too mannerly, I roughen mine up some, thats where the interest is. I dont even mind the damn Plymouth, as a form, but what I cant stand is a dealer. In anything. I know that this is a small picky-minded dumb-ass prejudice, but its been earned. Anyhow the Pasha, as we call him, noticed that Constanze was some beautiful, in fact semi-incredible looking, with black hair. He turned her head, as used to be said. Hed got to the left of flank steak, and he employed that. If were having Neiman-Marcus time, I cant compete. (In all honesty I have to concede that he is fairly handsome, for a Pasha, and excels in a number of expensive sports.) He put her in a Butler building just to mock me and because shes not so dumb shed be caught dead in a big fancy layout in River Oaks or somewhere. Shes got values. What Im trying to s九九藏书网uggest is, shes in a delicate relation to the real.
Poppin Darvon and mothballs
How I miss you
I was playing with my forty-three-foot overhead traveling crane which is painted bright yellow. I was practicing knocking over the stepladder with the hook. I was at a low point. Id been thinking about bread, colored steel bread, all kinds of colors of steel bread -- red yellow purple green brown steel bread -- then I thought no, thats not it. And Id already made all the welded-steel four-thousand-pound artichokes the world could accommodate that week, and they wouldnt let me drink no more, only a little Lone Star beer now and then which I dont much care for. And my new Waylon Jennings record had a scratch on it, went crack crack crack across the whole width of Side One. It was the kind of impasse us creative people reach every Thursday, some prefer other days. So I figured that in order not to totally waste this valuable time of my life, I had better get on the stick and bust Constanze out of the seraglio.
Oh Constanze oh Constanze