Mother of Pearl

And I said, ‘I’m thinkin’ I’ve wasted too much time thinkin’, is what I’m thinkin'.

And though he has watched a decent age pass by, a man will sometimes still desire the world.

The Negro on saxophone blew out a language older than English and the glasses on the tables trembled

Sometimes partial kindness kills a person as bad as partial knowin.' Judy said this while she hugged the dress. "But then sometimes partial kindness and partial knowin' is the two best things in the world.

The water rippled when he leaned in; he studied what he saw. Against a background of blue sky, there was his face, broad of forehead and overly long, and he was surprised at the new look of age on him. To everybody else, I must look ten years beyond twenty-seven, he thought, and it made him glad. Even had begun to fear gaps and what they might mean. Wide-spanning spaces between age and its weight of language and ability had begun to feel like easy reasons for saying good-bye. He saw inside the calm reflection a gull flying low over his head, braced by clouds drifting east toward Runnelstown. Turning back, he walked north around moss-based trees and finally found her digging wild onions growing thick next to fern. With her back to him she said, "Tired does one of two things-either builds the soul or breaks the heart. Can't decide which it is right now. All I know is I'm tired.

All he thinks while he studies pearlescent pigeons is this: I wish I knew how… I wish I knew… I ain’t ever gonna, but I wish I knew how it felt – (-to be free).

Running to catch up, feeling like he was in a constant state of chasing a shadow, he felt a drop of rain hit him square on the back of the neck. The weight of it so heavy it felt like a rock.

Thinking those old sticks looked authoritative, somehow. Like something belonging to an ancient queen come ashore by mistake in a common land full of limits.