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"Come down to Mexico when you're ready
1117
"I'll think about itCon Dios, mi amigo; siempre con
Dios
I watched him walk away with his tote-bag slung
over one shoulderI had a sudden brilliant memory
of his voice the night Emery had attacked me in
Big Pink, of Wireman shouting cojudo de puta madre
just before driving the candlestick into the dead
thing's faceHe had been magnificentI willed
him to turn back one final time
Must have caught a thought, my mother would have
saidThat's what Nan Melda
would have said
He saw me still standing there and his face lit in
a grin"Do the day, Edgar!" he criedPeople
turned to look, startled
"And let the day do you!" I called back
He saluted me, laughing, then walked into the
jetwayAnd of course I did eventually come south
to his little town, but although cartier santos 100 chronograph he's always alive
for me in his sayings - I never think of them in
anything but the present tense - I never saw the
man himself againHe died of a heart attack two
1118
months later, in Tamazunchale's open-air market,
while dickering for fresh tomatoesI thought
there would be time, but we always think stuff
like that, don't we? We fool ourselves so much we
could do it for a living
iii
Back at the place on Aster Lane, my easel stood in
the living room, where the light was goodThe
canvas on it was covered with a piece of toweling
Beside it, on the table with my oil paints, were
several aerial photos of Duma Key, but I'd hardly
glanced at them; I saw Duma in my dreams, and
still do
I tossed the towel on the couchIn the foreground
of my painting - my last painting - stood Big Pink,
rendered so replica rolex realistically I could almost hear the
shells grating beneath it with each incoming wave
Propped against one of the pilings, the perfect
surreal touch, were two red-headed dolls, sitting
side by sideOn the right
was Fancy, the one Kamen had fetched from
MinnesotaThe one that had been Illy's ideaThe
1119
Gulf, usually so blue during my time on Duma Key,
I had painted a dull and ominous greenOverhead,
the sky was filled with black clouds; they massed
to the top of the canvas and out of sight
My right arm began to itch, and that remembered
sensation of power began to flow first into me and
then through meI could see my picture almost
with the eye of a godI could
give this up, but it would not be easy
When I made pictures, I fell in love with the
world
When I made pictures, I felt whole
I painted discount louis vuitton awhile, then put the brush asideI
mixed brown and yellow together with the ball of
my thumb, then skimmed it over the painted beachand a haze of sand lifted, as if
on the first hesitant puff of air
On Duma Key, beneath the black sky of an inriding
June storm, a wind began to rise
How to Draw a Picture (XII)
1120
Know when you're finished, and when you are, put
your pencil or your paintbrush downAll the rest
is only life
February 2006-June 2007
Afterthoughts
I have taken liberties with the geography of
Florida's west coast, and with its history, as
wellAlthough Dave Davis was real, and did indeed
disappear, he is used here fictionally
And no one in Florida calls out-of-season storms
"Alices" except me
I want to thank my wife, the novelist Tabitha King,
who read this book in an early draft and balenciaga the day bag suggested
valuable changes; the Sweet Owen cookie-tin was
only one of them
I want to thank Russ Dorr, my old medical friend,
who patiently explained both Broca's area and the
physics of contracoup injuries
I also want to thank Chuck Verrill, who edited the
book with his usual combination of gentleness and
ruthlessness
1121
Teddy Rosenbaum, my friend and copy-editor: muchas
gracias
And you, my old friend Constant Reader; always youA Word from the Publisher to the ReaderTwenty-seven years ago I was fortunate enough to be associated with the publication of John Dos Passos' Three SoldiersIn no year since have I felt the same surge of excitement for a war novel -- not until the manuscript of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead was readied for publication
There is no direct parallel between the two omega seamaster de ville books |
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