Develop a rhythm.

When to inhale, when to exhale.

Can you count?

She had a nation shaped scar.

He wanted to color it in.

Beneath a downtown bridge the bottle rolls into the Monongahela watched by two who having spent the day fishing shoot rats and cans with a 22.

There were three platoons. They drove from coast to coast working in kitchens, carnivals and shelters.

The van broke down. They met a man with money and jokes and food.

They fought over the bottle.

She said he had two kids somewhere. Maybe we should tell them he is dead.

in line, waiting for food.

Soldiers, children, stand by cradling Kalashnikovs. Some smile. Some struggle for seriousness of expression adopting mannerisms from satellite TV.

- Join our movement. We have satellite TV.

Meanwhile food is running low. Green broth in steel drums. Is it food, or something else? Coolant.

- Don’t worry. It’s loaded with vitamins and nutrients. Enough to see you through the day.

The line snakes and swells back to Eden and forward to judgement day. Children keep order.

- You there. Get back in line. You there. Keep moving.

A rumor rolls forward.

- There is not enough food. There is not enough for everyone.

- Don’t worry.

The voice of reason.

- They will bring more.

More is coming.

Sandstorm in the distance.

- Those are trucks. See. More is coming.

The trucks arrive. Soldiers.

- What? No food?

That is a problem.

In this day and age, no less.

What went before, happened next.

John Ashbery sat staring at the page for hours. He only had one or two good hours in him at most and here he was, late in the day, with nothing to show for it.

John Ashbery sat staring at the page. It was late in the day. He only had one, maybe two hours to go. And nothing to show.

John Ashbery sat staring at the page.

J. A. sat staring.

J. A. sat.

J. A.

J.

When tired, they slept. Tall grass by water.

Tall grass by water. Developers. Paradise. They have been coming here for years, and plan coming for years more. There are plans for a major new development with a community center and system of roads connecting it with last year’s church and hospital complex. Thus it will be easy for them to move between the two, unmolested in paradise.

J.A: It is like dropping a bucket into the mind to see what comes up.

They spend their days waiting for the construction to begin. Waiting for the tap tap tap of JA’s typewriter. He only has two or so hours to go. Sometimes they avoid the roads and walk on the water instead.

John Ashbery stood up, leaving the typewriter and a blank page, its blankness duly noted and catalogued by his assistant and companion of thirty five years.

NEWARK — John E. List, a former Sunday school teacher who was on the run for more than 17 years after killing his family in 1971, has died while serving a life term for their murders, authorities said Monday. He was 82.

Someone from the town wanted to hang him, hang him high.

“String him up,” he said.

I did not want to string him up. I wanted to speak with him for a minute first and try to find out what it was that made him do it.

“What made you do it,” I’d ask.

I would ask, and he would tell me.

After I found out what made him do it, after he told me what is was that made him do it, I would write it down. When I wrote it down, I would try and remember exactly what he said, what his words were, what his exact words were word for word and not the words I thought he said or perhaps really should have said because they would have made what he said that much more clear. No, I would write down his words, exactly what he said, word for word, exactly as he had said it. But if I could not remember exactly what his words were, I would do my best to keep the essence of what he had said intact.

After I wrote it all down, I would read it over and over again. As I read, I would concentrate on the man, my interview with the man in the cell, the interview where I asked him why he did it and what was going through his head when he did it and so on and so forth. I would read and concentrate and as I read I might notice some things I got wrong, subtle nuances I failed to capture, or things I just plain forgot. Reading what I had written over and over again in this fashion will serve, with each pass through what I had written, to bring the two versions further into line. I would read what I had written as many times as necessary to ensure that what I had written was faithful to what the man had said and the environment in which he had said it.

At his point I would have full convergence and a factual story. I would have a record of why the man did what he did and why he did it, why he said that he did it, and if he had to do it all over again what he would do differently. I would know that if he could change one thing, any one thing at all, what this one thing was. I would know something about this man and what he might have become if he had changed this one thing, if in fact he had wanted to change one thing at all.

He started the car. On the way, his sons asked “What did you do in the war
daddy?” and got fries and chocolate shakes from McDonald’s instead.

Daddy had the same question.

Latrun was a disaster, boy. Some of our men were survivors just off the boat from Europe.

They parked, took the Metro, checked the map, asked for directions, found the spot.

Children in fatigues, standing with their fathers, press their fingers against stone.

“In summary, the anatomic cause of death was acute bronchopneumonia; predisposing factors included dilated cardiomyopathy and pulmonay fibrosis.”

Now that we have all the facts of the case, we can start to recreate the story of his life. Whether we will be able to solve its mysteries is another question.

There was something about the lungs. They seemed to have shown some radiation damage. What could have caused this? I suspect the x-rays.

They asked about alcohol, although there was no sign of liver or other damage. How much of this is based on hearsay, or the suspicions of people like us or the embellishments of the landlord? Read this section with some care.

His lungs had apparently been compromised for some time. What words were used? I have the autopsy. Whatever it was it was unexplained and so the question is whether the cause of this was the same as the cause of what happened to his heart. And what of the radiation - - could it have just been the series of x-rays he got over the years or was one of them botched?

Now that we have the whole story, from beginning to end, we can start to write down the whole story, from beginning to end, and then back again.