First since 1946. Downtown shuttered and abandoned. The port shut down. Bank branches surrounded by enraged citizenry. Police absent from the streets. Why is this beautiful baby elephant not smiliing?
"'That is my hunger,' I told myself countless times..., as if I wanted to convince myself that my hunger and I were still two things and I could shake it off like a burdensome lover; but in reality we were very painfully one, and when I explained to myself: 'That is my hunger,' it was really my hunger that was speaking and having its joke at my expense. A bad, bad time!"
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"In my dream, although men tied me up as a punishment, I had great power over the world's animals. 'Octopi!' I screamed. 'Bring me a shell engraved with the Statue of Liberty.' And the large cartilaginous octopi toiled with their tentacles to find that shell among the millions and million of shells in the sea. Then they found it and struggled to bring it up to the rock where I was captive and where they oh so humbly and respectfully handed it over to me. I looked at the shell, let out a peal of laughter, and threw it scornfully into the great void. The octopi all shed large, crystalline tears at my cruelty. But I laughed at their weeping, and roared, 'Bring me another one just like it!'"
—The Halfway House, 1987
b.
