The Tower, and other pieces - 12. Maxims and other fragments V

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"Only fools and geniuses claim to be

positively sure about a fact unknown."

 

 

 

 

"Happiness is what you make of it."

 

 

 

 

"Modern Medicine:

When a heartbeat is more important

than the life it supports."

 

 

 

 

"Everything French is wonderful!

except…perhaps, the French."

 

"Touts américaine est merveilleux,

sauf, bien sûr, les Américains."

 

 

 

 

“At the open window, the overly warm October breeze wafted in and exchanged itself for the more stagnant and expectant bar air. Looking down, the sidewalk below was crowded. People milled, waiting for admittance to the disco, or smoked, or just hung out there because they were too young to sneak into the club. Their merry voices and peals of laughter wafted in too, so full of promise and the hope for a life lived in the open, on the sidewalks of life. A crowd like life, it was mixed with diversity. Straight teenage guys hung like rag dolls off the back shoulders of their girlfriends, occasionally rocking and kissing their girl's neck. They smiled, smoked and hobnobbed with the drag queens from the club next to Blossom's. Lesbians from their bar two doors down slummed in Rebel-Without-a-Cause coolness, leaning against the wall. And all the while, boyfriends stood face-to-face and hip-to-hip, pushing out with hands locked around waists, then leaning in, talking quietly and finding the heavy weight of love made it most comfortable of all for them to prop heads on receptive shoulders.”

[Excerpt from The Willmore Pizza]

 

 

 

"I wish there were more time

in a lifetime to do

a lifetime's work."

 

 

 

 

"If a painting falls out of vogue,

somebody will always keep it, and put it away.

If a building falls out of fashion,

It is torn down, lost forever.

 

It takes a very brave person

to defend an 'uguly' building."

 

 

 

 

"If hope is the poor man's bread,

then surely dreams are the poor man's butter."

 

 

 

 

"The truth is likely

to make hypocrites of us all."

 

 

 

 

"It isn't hope that makes the world go round,

it's the promise of it that does."

 

 

 

 

"Is the only fun part about winning,

that somebody has to lose…?"

 

 

 

 

"You need faith to understand God and algebra:

both can be proven on paper,

but only through

a great deal of guesswork."

 

 

 

 

"A man must be a ruler of himself

before he can measure others."

 

 

 

 

"Only through others

can we understand ourselves."

 

 

 

 

"Emotions are my stock in trade –

Sometime I wish I were out of business."

 

 

 

 

“That evening, walking along the beach, looking at the sun go down, I thought myself pretty lonely. As it began to get dark, I got up, dusted sand off the seat of my jeans and looked for a way back to the road.

As I was walking, this kid, who was probably eighteen or nineteen, came up to my side. Now, the men of Bali are beautiful, big round and masculine faces with open and friendly gazes and smile, but this guy was hard and angular and looked a lot more Arabic than Asian. He was about 2-inches shorter than me, but ripped. His tank top let show a lean and well-muscled chest, abdomen and a pair stunning arms. A square gold pendant, like a flat bar of 24 karats, flopped at the bottom of a thick gold chain.

At first I didn't know what he wanted – there were panhandlers and people selling trinkets everywhere – but as the kid smiled at me and began to walk backwards, just in front and to my left side, he held up an unlit cigarette.

He said, ‘French? German? – Français ou Allemande?’

‘American,’ I said.

Then a grinning leer spread across his face and for the first time I saw just how sexy he was. He had big bright eyes, short-cropped hair, and a devilish lilt to his full lips.

‘Light?’ he stopped walking; he stepped in front of me.

I shrugged and half laughed. ‘I don’t smoke.’ I had laughed because there was something heavy about his accent; his vowels all had some redounding resonance that trembled in the filling of my teeth, and deep in the marrow of my thighbones. I tried to step by him, but he put his arm out – I felt his hot but dry hand grip my forearm.

‘Why so afraid? You no like to make new friends?’

I started to walk. ‘I have to meet my buddies for dinner.’ It was a lie.

He followed me. ‘You have a girlfriend?’

I must have grinned like an idiot, because he instantly got it. Next thing I see is him looking at my crotch, for yes, the moment he laid his workman's hand on me, my cock strained with all its might against my Levi's for his rough touch to grip it too.

‘Oh! He laughed, then drew in for a low and sideways confidence. ‘You got a boyfriend?’

‘No,’ I said, and that was the truth.

‘Then stop’—he pulled on my arm again, and this time I did halt my progress—‘Let's go sit on the beach, watch the waves – what's your hurry?’

Right. What was my hurry? An empty hotel room, searching for what was good on local Bali TV?

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘But here?’ It all seemed so open, with sunburned Australians littering the sand for as far as one could see.

He winked. ‘Follow me.’ And his tones reverberated deep enough to finger my soul.”

[Excerpt from A Half-Ounce of Gold]

 

 

 

 

"Sometimes the truth is the greatest joy we will encounter."

 

 

 

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