903. DOUBTLESS HE WAS TAKING RUSSIA FOR AN ISLAND

DOUBTLESS HE WAS TAKING
RUSSIA FOR AN ISLAND*
No, that's not me, that's Baudelaire.
French gruesome politics in a most
laughing manner. This riposte means
more malice than you'd think. It's the
sort of thing we'd like to say, in private.
-
I am holding a bar of lead in my hand.
It seems to weigh about ten pounds -
a sash weight, an ingot for melting,
who knows. Having been found in
the back of an old truck, it means
nothing to me. Linotype machines
used to melt these down for hot-
liquid lead to make type. I know.
I worked one in 1967.
-
He seems to take Russia for an island;
asking if it were possible to get there by land.
-

*After 'At One o'clock in the Morning' ('A Une Heure
du Matin') - Charles Baudelaire