Set during "Four Months Ago". Preceded by
Love (And Other Catastrophes).
Adam, Elle and Peter. G. Elle has a new toy; Adam has perfected the art of holding on while letting go.
So much of adolescence is an ill-defined dying,
An intolerable waiting,
A longing for another place and time,
Another condition.
- Theodore Roethke, 'I'm Here'
(In Case of Emergency) Break
You go by this door with a spring in your step, like a girl jumping puddles, and behind the long hair, tiny stars in your ears blink with pleasure.
What do I think, princess? There was a time you used to care what I thought.
When you were little, you could wind me up like clockwork. I spun stories, fairy tales and high-sea yarns, performed conjuring tricks for a drop of your laughter. It made the waiting tolerable. Kept the rust at bay.
Can our friend make you laugh, my dove? You deserve as much. Does he intrigue?
All I have to offer are histories, dust, memories of freedom; perhaps he can give you life.
23 August 2008