4446. THE GRAND MANNERS OF THIS WORLD

THE GRAND MANNERS

OF THIS WORLD

A grandiosity of Spring and color, bloom and growth,

a very nice meditation of time and passing splendor

(short like a bird and simple too). Time bides only its

own time, not really ours. It does things at its own

pace and with its own meanings; blindly some, and

without us really. Its pace is seemingly slow, yet just

as swift too. We interpret what we can of the earth-voice

you speak of. Will the bloom grow to love? Personally,

I think not, I'm just not that sunny, and, alas, things

fade. Perhaps they should be appreciated for that alone.

-

Here, in Belgrade, a neighborhood of Soames and Uffals,

I saw a man take a shit by the canal. He dropped his

drawers and simply crouched. I guess if it has to be done

it has to be done - and don't get me wrong, I've seen it

before along Hudson and Washington - the whole lower end

of Manhattan. The bums used to do it on the piers. The

drunks, well they did it 'anywheres'. It was just like that.

-

But today's the gentility age, and I'd not expected this;

but so much for manners if you must barf in your hat. I

do now suppose, anywhere around the world, there

are certain that which always take precedence.