He took pleasure slitting the throats of rare beasts. He torched palaces. He pounced on people and tore them apart. —Yet the crowd, the golden roofs, the beautiful beasts: all remained.
I rest my elbows on the table, the lamp brightly illuminates newspapers and boring books I’m dumb enough to reread.
Far, far above my subterranean sitting room, houses settle and spread, fog gathers. Mud is red or black. Monstrous city, endless night!
Nearer are the sewers. At my flanks, the width of the world. Or perhaps azure abysses, pits of fire. Perhaps moons and comets collide at these depths, seas and stories.
In these bitter hours, I imagine spheres of sapphire and steel. I have mastered silence. So what’s that vent doing, up there, illuminating a corner of my ceiling?