| road: | fissure opening lengthwise | |
| gypsies: | descendants of fog | |
| dogs: | forays from ditches, howling | |
| hayricks: | confidence men & pagan | |
| poplars: | silken garments kept in trunks |
The man with a bear came up to the carriage. He called out and the bear stood on its legs and pawed at the wood, mewling. |
| fable: | a weakness of the heart in children, treatment unknown | |
| bandit: | spice used to preserve gamey meat | |
| jewelry: | combustible root-stuff found under trees | |
| teeth: | tethers upon the month, related to spandrel | |
| humor: | a Gaelic shell in which the sea cannot be heard |
O Moon bearing salt, O Salt-bermed Moon, hanging crooked from the sky, fulgent, full of untold influence! |
| pathos: | a look back over your shoulder | |
| stormclouds: | congregants of evangelical fervor | |
| plow: | to believe in night, to practice sorcery | |
| earth: | measure of music, tuned to welkin | |
| culture: | labial common in old languages |
He had five Pomeranians he had taught various tricks. They wore bells around their necks that tinkled as the carriage bore over the rough road. |
| barter: | foreigner caught without passports | |
| silver: | girl of winsome smile | |
| handshake: | forgotten testimony of dreams | |
| shadows: | where the skiff bands rest | |
| river: | desire, incalculable in math |
He called himself Telemachus. I found him with his “telecamera” trained upon the shores at daybreak— |
| twilight: | danger and shuffling | |
| passage: | linnet glen and bone-fire lit | |
| ground: | when the clock is broken, when alone | |
| drizzle: | happenstance, as in waking | |
| steeples: | seldom, if ever, anywhere but the horizon |
The old wheels sluiced through suck-mud. The barber, hearing of her disorder, prescribed a phlebotomy. |
| history: | localizing effect, contingent upon water | |
| brutal: | mountains empty of bears | |
| hilt: | where you are, at any given time, in relation to death | |
| sanctity: | figure of speech of antique use | |
| advent: | diamond, or a gown of cotton lilies |
A lone figure with lion medallion stopped the carriage. He performed a satirical skit on what he said was being played in Paris those very days. No one knew. He clambered into the carriage; the women gripped their jewelry, and the man with the Pomeranians hazarded a smile. |