Instructions to the Reader

INSTRUCTIONS TO THE READER / Linda Pastan Come. Suspend willingly or not your disbelief and with empty pockets enter the room of the story. Warm your fingers at this candle which is only the stub of a dream and at any time may flicker or go out. Here fire consumes itself with paper with pencil for kindling; here a unicorn sleeps in the corner its musical horn ready. When I tell you this story is pure fact you will want to leave the room. Stay awhile. Evil is simply a grammatical error: a failure to leap the precipice between "he" and "I". There is also a beggar here with a bowl of rice. Fill your pockets, hurry, of the thousands of nights The Missouri Review · 31 there are only a handful left. At the end the typesetter will distribute the type. The letters will be divided from all meaning, separate as stars whose small teeth chatter but make no sense. Only thus is sleep possible. 32 ¦ The Missouri Review Linda Pastan ...