-- In Mexico City. Wearing the black jacket with the silver conchos. And trousers of fire pink.

-- I could have done better. But I dont know how. Could have done better, cleaned better or cooked better or I dont know. Better.

-- I find you utterly delightful. Abide with me. Well have little cakes with smarm, yellow smarm on them --

-- Which you mime so gracefully in auditoria large and small.

-- Blew it. Blew it.

-- Whats this gunk here in this bucket?

-- Naming babies, Lou, Lew, Louis.

-- I know all about it.

-- Well I wouldnt mind a Scotch myself.

-- I really admire you. I really do. To the teeth.

-- The Secretary of State cares. And the Secretary of Commerce.

-- I dashed a hope and dimmed an ardor. Promises shimmering like shrimp in light just under the surface of the water.

-- Has a partiality for white. White gowns, shifts, aprons, flowers, sauces.

-- Whats that mean?

-- Have to stand there and watch them, their keen eyes scanning the whatever. And then say "Good shot!"

-- Well I hate to be put in this position. Bending and subservient.

-- And not only that. And not only that.

-- Progress extending far into the future. Dams and aqueducts. The amazing strength of the powerful.

-- I see.

-- Well, why dont you ask her if its not an inconvenience or this isnt the wrong time or something.

-- Its staggers under the moon.

-- Stick to it, keep after it. Only way to go is all the way.

-- Always.

-- He does a tough Eminence.

-- Damfino. Just a bit of legal language I picked up somewhere.

-- Close to that figure.

-- Well, would you like to see it?

-- At least they know Im in town.

-- I have Goldwasser, Bombay gin and Old Jeb.

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-- Its U-joints in the vichyssoise.

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-- A mistletoe salad we whipped up together.

-- Made an effort. Made the effort.

-- He told me terrible things in the evening of that day as we sat side by side waiting for the rain to wash his water-color paper clean. Waiting for the rain to wash the water-colors from his watercolor paper.

-- Send it anywhere you like. Anywhere your little heart desires.

-- Ive wallowed for today thank you. Control is the thing.

-- Well lets have a drink.

-- But I love the city and will not hear it traduced.

-- Wailed a bit now and then into the ears of friends and caverns of the telephone.

-- The kind of thing you do so well.

-- What do the children say?

-- Mine.

-- Julias is the best. Best Ive ever seen. The finest.

-- We had a dog because we thought it would keep us together. A plain dog.

-- Icy day with salt on all the sidewalks.

-- Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

-- Thank you.

-- Heavens! Id not noticed. Let me raise you up.

-- Do not go into the red barn, he said. I went into the red barn. Julia. Swinging on a rope from hayloft to tack room. Gazed at by horses with their large, accepting eyes. They somehow looked as if they knew.

-- The kitchen is especially splendid.

-- Yes. Hes got his hooks into 九*九*藏*书*网her. Shes struggling to get away.

-- You see?

-- Right as rain. I mean okey-dokey.

-- Yes, you may hang it. Anywhere you like. On that wall or that wall or that wall.

-- And yet with my really wizard! good humor and cheerful thoughtless mien, I have caused a lot of trouble.

-- One of my finest. They roared for ten minutes.

-- Ease myself into bed of an evening brain jumping with hostile fluids.

-- Think Julias getting it on with Bally.

-- Sketching attitudes and forming pretty speeches.

-- Like a bass player plucking the great thick strings of his instrument with powerful plucks.

-- Man down. Corner of Mercer and One Six.

-- Tied flares to my extremities and wound candy canes into my lustrous, abundant hair. Getting ready for the great day.

-- Yes, I will.

-- Nonculminating kind of ultimately affectless activity.

-- Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. I remember.

-- Yes very tough. I was allowed to kiss the ring. He sat there, in the audience, just like another member of the audience. Just like anybody. Transfixed and enthralled.

-- Yes. Regaining the city, plunged once more into activities.

-- Never heard of him.

-- Maybe in a few days. A few days or a few years.

-- Once you lose your glow you never get it back.

-- Want to buy a garter belt? Have one, thanks. Cut your losses, try another town, split for the tall timber.

-- Control used to be the thing. Now, abandon.

-- Visited a health club there, my rear looked like two pocketbooks, they worked on it.

-- Did the Eminence arrive?

-- The strains of the city working upon an essentially non-urban sensibility.

-- Thank you. Where shall I send the bill?

-- Sailing after lunch and after sailing, gin.

-- You smile. And the angels sing. La la la la la la la la la la la la.

-- She told me that she didnt like to be called just for that purpose, people she didnt know and maybe wouldnt like if she did know, Im just warning you.

-- In the evening by the fireside --

-- Yes they pride themselves on their azaleas. Have competitions, cups.

-- Bread in milk, have some.

-- Never fail to knock myself out. Put pictures on the walls and pads under the rugs.

-- And if I have ever been able to stomach your serial triumphs --

-- My demands were not met. One, two, three, four.

-- Yes theyre clued in. We are not unprotected. Soldiers and policemen.

-- The sky. A rectangle of gray in the foreground and behind that, a rectangle of puce. And behind that, a square of silver gilt.

-- Never heard of him.

-- Oh.

-- Wrinkling you so that you look like a roast turkey.

-- Youve got to have something besides yourself. A cause, interest, or goal.

-- I went far beyond the time normally allotted for a speaker. Far.

-- Run in the mornings too, take green tea at noon, study household management, finance, repair of devices.

-- Its confetti in the swimming pool.

-- Man down. Center and One Eight.

-- Do something wonderful. I dont know what.

-- Sometimes I have luck. In plazas or taverns.

-- Followed by development of head banging in the child.

-- Spranger.

九*九*藏*书*网-- Will you remember me a year from now?

-- The guests applauded. Above us, a great tent with red and yellow stripes.

-- I was preparing myself. Getting ready for the great day.

-- I am so proud of you. Again and again. Proud of you.

-- Its "Wolfram Looking at His Wife Whom He Has Imprisoned with the Corpse of Her Lover."

-- Well, me too. But after all. But still.

-- A dozen Filipinos with trays.

-- I spent some time away and found everyone there affable, gentle, and good.

-- But I mean you really like her dont you?

-- What? Are you sure? Are you quite sure? Let me show you this picture.

-- The hall ganged with admiring faces. Except for a few.

-- Toys toys I want more toys.

-- Or worse, dont fret about it, could have put your cute little butt in worse places, in thrall to dismaler personalities.

-- My best ghost. The one I think about, in bitter times and good.

-- Lave you with bee jelly and bone oil.

-- You are excellent at it. Really first-rate.

-- Hurt by malicious criticisms all very well grounded.

-- Well, I know her well enough to ask her.

-- The muscle of jealousy is not in me. Nowhere.

-- I suppose thats true. Strictly speaking.

-- And if I have ever forgiven you your astonishing successes --

-- Yes, I will.

-- Coughed.

-- Polish the doorknobs with Brasso and bring in the sea bass in its nest of seaweed.

-- Well I mean who doesnt like violet eyes?

-- Figs and kiss-me-nots. I would meet you upon this honestly.

-- Naw it was just another of those dumb ideas we had we thought would keep us together.

-- They say: Will you always love me?

-- Lasciviously offered a something pure and white.

-- Let me show you this picture.

-- Quite so.

-- Oh I could have done better, better, I was lax.

-- One of the best things. One of the very best.

-- Purple bursts in my face as if purple staples had been stapled there every which way --

-- When I was a little girl I made mud pies, dangled strings down crayfish holes hoping the idiot crayfish would catch hold and allow themselves to be hauled into the light. Snarled and cried, ate ice cream and sang "How High the Moon." Popped the wings off crickets and floated stray Scrabble pieces in ditch water. All perfect and ordinary and perfect.

-- The clapping shut of the book.

-- Hurt by malicious criticisms all very well grounded --

-- Each time with memories of the last time.

-- The tabernacle door ajar --

-- Bust your ass, its the only way.

-- To make soft what is hard. To make hard the soft. To conceal what is black with use, under new paint. Check the tomatoes with their red times, in the manual. To enspirit the spiritless. To get me a jug and go out behind the barn sharing with whoever is out behind the barn, peasant or noble.

-- Oh it is so fine. Incomparable.

-- But handsome hip bones got to give him that.

-- Oh well, yes. I agree. Quite right. Absolutely.

-- As we learn from studying the careers of all the great figures of the past. Heraclitus and Launcelot du Lac.

-- Its "Vulcan and Maia."

-- For藏书网 I do not deny that I am a little out of temper.

-- Will you remember me five years from now?

-- Made myself knowledgeable in certain areas, one, two, three, four. Studied the Value Line and dipped into cocoa.

-- Organizing our deepest wishes as a mother foresightedly visits a store that will be closed tomorrow.

-- Ricchi.

-- Friendships the best thing.

-- Last night at two the barking dog in the apartment above stopped barking. Its owners had returned. I went into the kitchen and barked through the roof for an hour. I believe I was understood.

-- Well its a clean afternoon, heavy on the azaleas.

-- Work hard and concentrate. Try Clown, Baby, Hell-hag, Witch, the Laughing Cavalier. The Lord helps those --

-- Trays with edibles. Wearables. Readables. Collectibles.

-- Yeah Ive noticed that. Losing your glow.

-- I was making an effort. What I do best.

-- Well, probably this is the wrong time come to think of it because she isnt here and some time when she is here would probably be a better time.

-- No. These do not in fact intrude. Maybe as a slight shimmer of the over-and-done-with. Each great day is itself, with its own war machines, rattles, and green lords. There is the hesitation that the particular day wont be what it is meant to be. Mostly it is. Thats peculiar.

-- But he hastily with an embarrassed schottische of the hands covered you up again.

-- But I rallied. Rallied.

-- Our many moons of patience and accommodation. Tricks and stunts unknown to common cunts.

-- Youve got to have something besides yourself. A cat, too often.

-- Peered into his dental arcade noting the health of his pink tissue.

-- Yes, Bally is a regal memory for everyone.

-- What does that mean?

-- Well thats not bad. I mean its a means.

-- The very damn best believe me.

-- Saw him once more, he was at a meeting I was at, had developed an annoying habit of coughing into his coat collar whenever he --

-- Yes shes lost her glow. Gone utterly.

-- Oh that clown band. Oh its sweet strains.

-- To each his own. Handmade bread and individual attention.

-- You are the sunshine of my life.

-- Yes Im thinking hard, thinking hard.

-- Much like that. Every day. I dont mind doing the work if I get the results.

-- Had a clown at the wedding he officiated standing there in his voluptuous white costume his drum and trumpet at his feet. He said, "Do you, Harry. . ." and all that. The guests applauded, the clown band played, it was a brilliant occasion.

-- Will you always remember me?

-- Vigorously? Vigorously. Yes.

-- Some think one thing, some another.

-- The fading gray velvet of the sofa. He clowned with my panties in his teeth. Walked around that way for half an hour.

-- He told me terrible things in the evening of that day as we sat side by side waiting for the rain to wash the water-colors from his watercolor paper. Waiting for the rain to wash the paper clean, quite clean.

-- Goodbye, madame. Dip if you will your hand in the holy water font as you leave, and attend as well to the poor box just to thehｔtｐ://ｗｗw•99ｌｉｂ.nｅt right of the door.

-- And his toes, wonderful toes, that man has got toes.

-- Acquired busts of certain notables, marble, silver, bronze. The Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

-- I admire your dash and address. But regret your fear and prudence.

-- Bounding into the woods on all fours barking like a mother biting at whatever moves in front of me --

-- Yes, I will.

-- Now that I take a long look at you --

-- Knock knock.

-- Well, I would like to see it right now because just talking about it has got me in the mood to see it. If you know what I mean.

-- Glitches in the system as yet unapprehended.

-- Took me by the hand and led me through all the rooms. Many rooms.

-- I remember, I can feel them still, pressing into me as they once did on hot afternoons and cool nights and feverish first-thing-in-the-mornings.

-- Man down. Corner of Water and Eight Nine.

-- Featherings of ease and bliss.

-- Washing and rewashing my lustrous, abundant hair.

-- Decorated with rings and rubber bands.

-- Just gonna sit in the wrinkling house and wrinkle. Get older and worse.

-- Ah, youre a fool. A damned fool.

-- Another wallow?

-- For Leatherheart, I turn my back. My lustrous, abundant back.

-- Julia was there. Rotten Julia.

-- Well.

-- Do you also save string?

-- Bone ignorance.

-- I got ready for the great day. The great day came, several times in fact.

-- Knew a guy wore his stomach on his sleeve. I dealt with the problem using astrology in its medical aspects. His stomach this, his stomach that, God Almighty but it was tiresome, tiresome in the extreme. I dealt with it by using astrology in its medical aspects.

-- Painting dead women by the hundreds in passionate imitation of Delacroix.

-- Its "Portia Wounding Her Thigh."

-- Well I dont mind if I do.

-- Frolic and detour.

-- Ill never achieve abandon.

-- I think I could eat a little something.

-- The last candle hidden behind the altar -

-- Growing older and with age, less beautiful.

-- Trying to get my colors together. Trying to play one off against another. Trying for cancellation.

-- Unless the participant affirmatively elects otherwise.

-- Yes I just feel so fresh and free here. One doesnt feel that way every day, or every week.

-- I love you, Harmonica, quite exceptionally.

-- Well.

-- I thought that. Once I thought that.

-- Yeah I heard about that hes got a big mouth.

-- I went far beyond the time normally allotted to, or for, a speaker. It is fair to say they were enthralled. And transfixed. Inappropriate laughter at some points but I didnt mind that.

-- Its "Tancred Succored by Ermina."

-- In a cab. In his robes of scarlet.

-- Born with a silver hoe in your mouth.

-- The unexploded pillow and the simple, blunt sheet.

-- Always.

-- Did it?

-- Then the candles going out one by one --

-- Yes its caring and being kind. We have corn dodgers too and blood sausage.

-- Tickling them when they want to be tickled. Abstaining, when they do not.

-- I performed in a hall. Alone under the burning lights.

-九-九-藏-书-网- Most excellent and dear friend. Who the silly seasons named for.

-- I was fecund, savagely so.

-- I respect your various phases. Your sweet, even discourse.

-- You were making an effort.

-- Yes, I should think you would.

-- Yes thats something we do. Our damnedest. They cant take that away from us.

-- Oh that clown band. Oh its sweet strains.

-- By gum I think you mean it. I think you do.

-- Yes hed lift his coat collar and cough into it odd mannerism very annoying.

-- That cracks them up does it?

-- Reading a lot of books and having good ideas.

-- Will you remember me two years from now?

-- Whos there?

-- Yes thats very lovely. What is it?

-- Large and admirable men. Not neglecting the small and ignoble. Dealing evenhandedly with every situation on a case-by-case basis.

-- I have that too.

-- I dont know just a bit of legal language I picked up somewhere.

-- Paying lots of attention. A clear vision of what can and cant be done.

-- You see.

-- Whirling and jigging in the red light and throwing veils on the floor and throwing gloves on the floor --

-- Pitching pennies at a line scraped in the dust.

-- If you need a friend Im yours till the end.

-- On my free evenings and paid holidays. Making the most of the time I have here on this earth. Knotting, sewing, weaving, welding.

-- The sky. A rectangle of glister. Behind which, a serene brown. A yellow bar, vertical, in the upper right.

-- Its greens in a pot.

-- Doing and redoing my lustrous abundant hair.

-- Ill take it. You may stack it with the others, against that wall or that wall or that wall --

-- Probably I can get ahead by working hard, paying attention to detail.

-- As is the case with the Oni of Ife. Saw him on television.

-- Blood vessels bursting in my face just under the skin all the while.

-- Backed into a small table which overturned with a scattering of ashtrays and back copies of important journals.

-- What do the children say?

-- What ought I to do? What do you advise me? Should I try to see him? What will happen? Can you tell me?

-- Well I mean who doesnt like frisky knees?

-- Yes. Got to get going, got to make some progress.

-- I was out shooting with him once, pheasant, he got one, with his fancy shotgun. The bird bursting like an exploding pillow.

-- Sometimes by virtue of the sun on a summers day.

-- Got to get it together, get the big bucks.

-- Whos the artist?

-- Your gracious and infinitely accommodating presence.

-- That wallow in certainty called the love affair.

-- Always worth making the effort, always.

-- You packed hastily reaching the station just before midnight counting the pennies in your purse.

-- I could have done better but I was dumb. When youre young youre sometimes dumb.

-- Well I dont know, I havent seen it.

-- He was a salty dog all right. Salty dog.

-- Yes shes sopping up the blood there, got a big rag, seems a sweet girl, God hes out of it isnt he, dead or dying horse at upper left. . . Whos the artist?

-- Got to make the effort, scratch where it itches, plans, schemes, directives, guidelines.