9 WINDFALL 11 TURNCOAT 13 GANGLAND 15 NIGHT FISHING AT ANTIBES 17 SABBAT 19 SHIVAREE 21 POINT SPREAD 24 (THE TORONTO STAR, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30,1985) 25 READING THE TIDES: PETROGLYPH PARK 27 FABULIST 28 ACE OF SPADES 29 WILD CARD 30 1920'S FLICKER 31 CANDLELIGHT IN BLACK 32 HIGHGATE 34 CAPE OF GOOD HOPE 35 PICPUS 37 ILLUMINAIRE 38 CARNIVAL AND LENT 40 TERMINAL LIVING 45 MIDPOINT 46 TWINKLING OF AN EYE 47 SERENADE 49 HIDDEN AGENDA 50 ADVENTURER 51 SLIPPER 52 HELLULAND 53 TRINKETS 54 A THIEF'S NOTEBOOK 55 WARHORSE 57 TEETER-TOTTER 58 CHEMIN DE FER 60 WITHIN REACH 62 COUNTESS 63 COUNTESS II 64 PALEFACE 65 CUD 67 CURRENCY 68 REFRESHER COURSE 69 GHOST TALES 70 WANDERLUST 73 PASTICHE 76 BOCA 84 WORK IN PROGRESS 88 HARDCASES
"In the five and dime store where I first fell in love with unreality."
Photos along a soft-centred wall like assorted chocolates with prized centres, tiny miniatures-- full portraits the young army major, for one, in battle fatigues come full family regalia.
Mounting the staircase (tearing back the chocolate paper) shroud hand on the railing, pressuring the cherry liquid into oozing burst of memory, the nectarine orange of a summer's day. Swing & garden loom into view, the mind plays thoughtscapes, a tag ensemble, along the wall.
Old colours (or lack of them) abound-- the antiquated dress & hairdos of grandparents that speak lavishly, into taste buds, across the fallen years. Ivy & ivory fan, kitten on a rocker, cradled baby that amounts to me, the sun coming home to roost on this plaintiff, pleading wall.
Passage of thought into this chocolate box-- the lid off stern memory prying forth a directory of mouth-watering choice, or so the advertisers' claim.
Yet do we ever thought over what we taut (in our heads) we are? My dad in Kenya (a time and age from this perspective like the peanut brittle) or grandfather, about eight, from the dreamy, dark cream & nougat reaches of layered black space that speaks the aeons ago-- his manner and distance a smoky haze from the twilight "special occasion" Black Magic chocolate box.
Sitting in the spendthrift dark lilting pennies away, deciphering fate ... . The bed, a warm reach past the pillow like personal mortality in the incest breath of life.