Read Fires. Essays, Poems, Stories for Free Online Page B

leaning into consequence
    and eventually, utter ruin
    if unbridled. And sex,
    what is sex if it is not unbridled?
    You walk on the strand that night
    with your magpie friend, Ed Goncourt
    You tell him when you write
    love scenes these days you can jackoff
    without leaving your desk.
    'love has nothing to do with it/' you say.
    You enjoy a cigar and a clear view of Jersey.
    The tide is going out across the shingle,
    and nothing on earth can stop it.
    The smooth stones you pick up and examine under the moons light have been made blue from the sea. Next morning when you pull them from your trouser pocket, they are still blue.
    —fox my wife
    TEL AVIV AND LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI
    This afternoon the Mississippi-high, roily under a broiling sun, or low, rippling under starlight, set with deadly snags come out to fish for steamboats— the Mississippi this afternoon has never seemed so far away.
    Plantations pass in the darkness; there's Jones's landing appearing out of nowhere, out of pine trees, and here at 12-Mile Point, Grays overseer reaches out of fog and receives a packet of letters, souvenirs and such from New Orleans.
    Bixby, that pilot you loved,
    fumes and burns:
    Donation, boy! he storms at you time and again.
    Vicksburg, Memphis, St Looey, Cincinnati,
    the paddleblades flash and rush, rush
    upriver, soughing and churning
    the dark water.
    Mark Twain you're all eyes and ears,
    you're taking all this down to tell later,
    everything
    even how you got your name,
    quarter twain, mark twain,
    something every schoolboy knew
    save one.
    I hang my legs further over the banister
    and lean back in shade,
    holding to the book like a wheel,
    sweating, fooling my life away,
    as some children haggle,
    then fiercely slap each other
    in the field below.
    THE NEWS CARRIED TO MACEDONIA
    On the banks of the
    river they call Indus today we observe a kind of bean
    much like the Egyptian bean
    also crocodiles are reported upstream & hillsides grown over
    with myrrh & ivy He believes we have located the headwaters of the River Nile
    we offer sacrifice hold games
    for the occasion There is much rejoicing & the men think
    we shall turn back These elephants their emissaries offer
    are giant terrifying beasts yet
    with a grin he yesterday ran up a ladder onto
    the very top of one
    beast The men
    cheered him & he waved & they cheered him
    again He pointed across the river
    & the men grew silent
    The builders
    busy themselves with great rafts at the water's edge on the morrow we again set our faces
    to the East Tonight
    wind birds fill the air
    the clacking of their bills like iron on iron The wind
    is steady is fragrant with jasmine trail of the country behind us The wind moves
    through the camp stirs the tents of the Hetaeri
    touches each of the sleeping soldiers Euoi! Euoi!
    men cry out in their sleep & the horses
    prick their ears & stand shivering In a few hours they all shall wake with the sun shall follow the wind even further
    THE MOSQUE IN JAFFA
    I lean over the balcony of the minaret My head swims.
    A few steps away the man who intends to betray me begins by pointing out key sights-market church prison whorehouse. Killed, he says. Words lost in the wind but drawing a finger across his throat so I will get it He grins.
    The key words fly out-Turks Greeks Arabs Jews trade worship love murder a beautiful woman. He grins again at such foolishness. He knows I am watching him. Still he whistles confidently as we start down the steps bumping against each other going down commingling breath and bodies in the narrow spiralling dark.
    Downstairs, his friends are waiting with a car. We all of us light cigarettes and think what to do next. Time, like the light in his dark eyes, is running out as we climb in.
    NOT FAR FROM HERE
    Not far from here someone is calling my name. I jump to the floor.
    Still, this could be a trap.
    Careful, careful.
    I look under the covers for my knife.
    But even as I curse God
    for the delay, the door is thrown open
    and a