"Prediction of Robert's Death",
From Volume II of Love in Transition
SM,
Chapter XVIII, p. 162
"If I'd known you were comin', I'd of baked a cake
baked a cake
baked a cake
If I'd known you were comin', I'd of baked a cake
how cha do, how cha do, how cha do
Now I don't know where you came from and I don't know where you've
been
But it really doesn't matter, grab a seat [sic] and here's
a platter
and we'll dig dig dig right in."
Robert, Robert, I write you an ode . .
"Paula, do you think I've changed?"
"You don't get angry so quickly."
"No, not so susceptible to outside . . . concussion.
"There's a way in which people gradually contract around their essences
. . . The point I keep coming back to—is to do something about our
essence.
"If I tried to take advantage of you, I knew there would be an instantaneous
arrival of negative angels. That wasn't even me."
"Well, it wasn't me either."
"No, it wasn't you! I'm assuming it wasn't you. But I keep thinking
maybe you—you—know something. And if you do, tell me.
"You remember, we're going to find the Ariadne thread. I'm there
with the Minotaur. Now help . . .
"For the last time, now maybe you can understand this. I'm an ironist.
You've never played with me. I want to play with you, on the highest
level.
"And one thing more: there's a touch of melodrama in this. And we
should avoid those Third Acts. I thought you didn't like them. There
are all those raven people. And I'm not one of them."
"It's such a trudging feeling to go step by step holding onto the
rope, dragging the little . . . corpse behind."
"Nonsense. It's a Mercedes! It's a helicopter!"—short, staccato,
joyful. "This is our lowest moment, and if we can get through this,
we might"—as if he were climbing those stairs again—"see a glimmer
of light."
"Only a glimmer?"
"What do you want—a sunburst?"
"Yes."
"Well, say the magic word. It's Abracadabra."
"I
think I was something of a gymnasium for you.
"If
you can go, I wish you well. Put a stamp on it and mail it to Jesus,
saying 'This is what we made of it.'
"But perhaps this is our Thermopylae.
"The only thing that remains,
and that's because it's been un-
sublimated—
is much feeling.
"I wanted to carve an image into you
"to pull some shadow across your psyche."
LITTLE CHAPTER, p. 163:
Paula went off
But the bomb it did not
For it would be Robert the bomb who went off. And what would happen
when he really did GO OFF? That would be all it took, like the end
of the world that day when it came—the explosion and
pain— Well, he was a bomb, wasn't he? And then one day he
would—go off
From p. 171:
The square root of Time Square was TIME, of course
Blackout in an avenue. And suppose—
no, it wasn't Time Square
For that was the "Avenue Robert walked down"
TIME SQUARE
From p. 173:
Handed down, generation unto generation
A pass
A KEY
One gets out of the Labyrinth only
with the
SKELETON
KEY
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