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----- Original Message ----- From: "Kenneth Wolman" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2008 1:50 PM Subject: Re: City Psyche - New de blog > Halvard Johnson wrote: >> Reminds me of the time in Fell's Point in Baltimore I was walking along >> S. >> B'way toward the harbor and was passed by two guys >> going the other way, one of whom said, in an astonished tone, >> to the other, "Him? Who'd want to kill him?" >> >> Hal >> > > Yeah, but. > > > MUGGER > > In the April paradise of 1956, > in the Bronx Botanical Gardens, > there an older boy held a fishknife > to my throat, wrested the camera > I carried and the jacket I wore, > and left me quivering, brought to ground. > > Now, on those nights > when all life's mischances > weave themselves into the fleshy brocade > of a drape that darkens and smothers, > heats and dresses the heart > in a curtain of sweltering memories, > it is then that my tormentor looms > before me, looms but does not float, > plants himself like a termite > in the foundations of my house: > > and he is solid, > reeking like the earth and leaves > that filled my mouth and nostrils > that day so long ago, > and he plies his recollected trade with > the passionless tenacity of the termite, > chewing through my crumbling foundations. > > KTW/6-29-95 > Nice. Very precisely observed. "passionless tenacity."