In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

28 The Palace of Contemplating Departure You wandered through my life like a backwards wish when I was ready for deliverance. I was ready for release like a pinball in God’s mouth like charanga on Tuesdays like the summer in Shanghai when we prayed for a rainstorm, bartered our shame, tore open oranges with four dirty thumbs. The forecast said Super so we chartered a yacht and we planted a garden on the unbending prow but the sea said Surrender with its arms full of salt, and wind shook the seeds from our shirt coat pockets so when we washed up on the shoreline of sunlight near the city of wind we were broken and thin, like wraiths at a wake. But you tilted your head up and told me I was wild so I lifted my life and I lifted your life 29 and we wandered through the gate of radiant days then we married our splendor in the hall of bright rule. I thank you again: you gave madness a chance and you lassoed the morning and we met on a Tuesday in a dance hall in Shanghai and I left you in a leap year for the coveted shoreline and you wept like a book when it’s pulled from a well. But you were the one who told me I was wild and you were the one who wrestled the angel and I knew when I left you that courage was a choice and memory, a spear, and the X of destination is etched on my iris and shifts with the seasons— don’t think of the phoenix, think of the mountain. But where will I go now with my tireless wonder? And when will I again be brave like that? ...

Share