OCR Text |
Show w Double-you takes up space like a comb in a pocket or a tank rolling heavy on caterpillar treads. Human beings encased in iron, as in the 1991 photo of an Iraqi soldier standing in his tank burnt to a black crisp. Contraband image, snuck past the censors, now something I can worry up more readily than my mother's face. Let the cockscomb be red. The Etruscans used hens for oracles and when they died, stroked their collarbones. The Romans started breaking them for wishes. Widow: an incomplete line of type (unlucky break) carried over to the next page, usually avoided by rewriting. Write, from Latin, scrivus, to tear or scratch. Let the hen be clawed. Writhe, from Old English, to twist, as in agony. One added letter's difference between a plea and a body as it bums. |