II. A DRIFTER…
adrift on a wind-driven sojourn to traffic with phantoms on long deserted highways, to meet lone rangers and wrangle drawling one-liners from strangers, to meet strange men driven to violence by the dark spirits of voodoo and tennessee whiskey

a stranger straight out of an old parable of the road draws near. his boots drum up the grit, step by step, a fierce tattoo marked by clouds of yellow dust

he enters my house and relays stories of his wayfaring. he tells me the ways of the world and how that world fares and punctuates his rhetorical questions with vaguely concealed slyness. “you’ve never been to paris? never seen la joconde? no? seriously, never?” nodding ah-ha he continues, “it’s a small painting, about this big…” and holds out his arms and cocks his thumbs and index fingers into right angles.

here are his hands, framing my world: a white door, a bare brown floor, two cups of tea on a wooden table, a small pile of books atop a small cabinet.

he shuts one eye and mimes photographing me, “la joconde,” he says, “in her gallery.” he says this with a grin simmering behind his face. the heat bakes off him. the tea exhales steam for longer than usual, and the cup in my hand never seems to cool.

he burns,

and at night i toss and turn in my bed. i struggle with certainties: tomorrow over breakfast, he will dangle the lure of the untraveled world. i will hesitate to catch it, and his bait will sink into trite banter. he will continue in lightly mocking, slightly disappointed tones, and there will be a certain hitch at the end of each sentence as it stops short of becoming an invitation. i will smile my most meaningless smile and walk him to the door. i will watch him striding away, and before the dust obscures him completely, i will take one step forward. then i will hear, distantly, the rattling of wind against chain link fences. in that moment i will return to myself, smiling that meaningful smile that exists only in my gallery, belonging only to me.

III. IS THERE A HAIRAFTER?

hahahaha at least i know how to amuse myself!!