Well, yes.
Asked her opinion of Versailles, my daughter said she thought it was overdecorated.
But we couldnt stop the bleeding, in the cab to the American Hospital the driver kept looking over his shoulder to make sure that we werent bleeding on his seat covers, handfuls of bloody paper towels in my right and left hands. . .
A boat ride through the scattered islands. A Warsaw Pact novelist asked me to carry a package of paper to New York for him.
with a good book, Rilke, as I remember, and resolved never to find myself in a situation as dire as his.
In San Antonio we walked by the little river. And ended up in Helens Bar, where John found a pool player who was, like John, an ex-Marine. How these ex-Marines love each other! It is a flat scandal. The Congress should do something about it. The IRS should do something about it. You and I talked to each other while John talked to his Parris Island friend, and that wasnt too bad, wasnt too bad. We discussed twenty-four novels of normative adultery. "Cant have no adultery without adults," I said, and you agreed that this was true. We thought about it, our hands on each others knees, under the table.
I offered to get out and run alongside the car, if that would allow them to converse more freely.
Ninety-two this afternoon, the stock market up in heavy trading.
Tomorrow, fair and warmer, warmer and fair, most fair. . .
"But thats not my fault!"
In Berlin everyone stared, and I could not blame them. You were spectacular, your long skirts, your long dark hair. I was upset by the staring, people gazing at happiness and wondering whether to credit it or not, wondering whether it was to be trusted and for how long, and what it meant to them, whether they were in some way hurt by it, in some way diminished by it, in some way criticized by it, good God get it out of my sight --
Woman is silent for two days in San Francisco. And walked through the streets with her arms raised high touching the leaves of the trees.
In Copenhagen I went shopping with two Hungarians. I had thought they merely wanted to buy presents for their wives. They bought leather gloves, chess sets, frozen fish, baby food, lawnmowers, air conditioners, kayaks. . . We were six hours in the department store.
Lunching with the Holy Ghost I praised the world, and the Holy Ghost was pleased. "We have that little problem in Barcelona," He said, "the lights go out in the middle of dinner." "Ive noticed," I said. "Were working on it," He said, "what a wonderful city, one of our best." "A great town," I agreed. In an ecstasy of admiration for what is we ate our simple soup.
Right now sunny skies in mid-Manhattan, the temperature is forty-two degrees.
Well, yes.
On another evening, as we were on our way to dinner, I kicked the kid with carefully calibrated force as we were crossing the Pont Mirabeau, she had been pissy all day, driving us crazy, her character improved instantly, wonderfully, this is a tactic that can be used exactly once.
In Mexico City we lay with the gorgeous daughter of the American ambassador by a clear, cold mountain stream. Well, that was the plan, it didnt work out that way. We were around sixteen and had run away from home, in the great tradition, hitchedvarious long rides with various sinister folk, and there we were in the great city with about two t-shirts to our names. My friend Herman found us jobs in a jukebox factory. Our assignment was to file the slots in American jukeboxes so that they would accept the big, thick Mexican coins. All day long. No gloves.
In Stockholm we ate reindeer steak and I told the Prime Minister. . . That the price of booze was too high. Twenty dollars for a bottle of J & B! He (Olof Palme) agreed, most politely, and said that they financed the army that way. The conference we were attending was held at a workers vacation center somewhat outside the city. Shamelessly, I asked for a double bed, there were none, we pushed two single beds together. An Israeli journalist sat on the two single beds drinking our costly whiskey and explaining the devilish policies of the Likud. Then it was time to go play with the Africans. A poet who had been for a time a Minister of Culture explained why he had burned a grand piano on the lawn in front of the Ministry. "The piano," he said, "is not the national instrument of Uganda."
In the car on the way back from San Antonio the ladies talked about the rump of a noted poet. "Too big," they said, "too big too big too big." "Can you imagine going to bed with him?" they said, and then all said "No no no no no," and laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed.
"This will teach you," they said, "never to go shopping with Hungarians."
Again in Paris, years earlier, without Anna, we had a hotel room opening on a courtyard, and late at night through an open window heard a woman expressing intense and rising pleasure. We blushed and fell upon each other.
Again in Paris, the hotel was the Montalembert. . . Anna jumped on the bed and sliced her hand open on an open watercolor tin, blood everywhere, the concierge assuring us that "In the war, I saw much worse things."
A group of Chinese in brown jackets preceded us through the halls of Versailles. They were middle-aged men, weighty, obviously important, perhaps thirty of them. At the entrance to each room a guard stopped us, held us back until the Chinese had finished inspecting it. A fleet of black government Citro?ns had brought them, they were much at ease with Versailles and with each other, it was clear that they were being rewarded for many years of good behavior.
"But youre married!"
In Taegu the air was full of the noise of helicopters. The helicopter landed on a pad, General A jumped out and walked with a firm, manly stride to the spot where General B waited -- generals visiting each other. They shook hands, the honor guard with its blue scarves and chromed rifles popped to, the band played, pictures were taken. General A followed by
When Herman was divorced in Boston. . . Carol got the good barbeque pit. I put it in the Blazer forher. In the back of the Blazer were cartons of books, tableware, sheets and towels, plants, and oddly, two dozen white carnations fresh in their box. I pointed to the flowers. "Herman," she said, "he never gives up."
I correctly identified a Matisse as a Matisse even though it was an uncharacteristic Matisse, you thought I was knowledgeable whereas I was only lucky, we stared at the Schwitters show for one hour and twenty minutes, and then lunched. Vitello tonnato, as I recall.
^^Page 171^^
Tearing into cold crab at Scomas we saw Chill Wills at another table, doing the same thing. We waved to him.
In Barcelona the lights went out. At dinner. Candles were produced and the shiny langoustines placed before us. Why do I love Barcelona above most other cities? Because Barcelona and I share a passion for walking? I was happy there? You were with me? We were celebrating my hundredth marriage? Ill stand on that. Show me a man who has not married a hundred times and Ill show you a wretch who does not deserve the world.
After about a week of this we were walking one day on the street on which the Hotel Reforma is to be found and there were my father and grandfather, smiling. "The boys have run away," my father had told my grandfather, and my grandfather had said, "Hot damn, lets go get em." I have rarely seen two grown men enjoying themselves so much.
