To the Wedding (21 page)

The musicians are packing up. One or two couples dance to the music still in their heads. Ninon stands before Gino. A little before he was carrying her against his chest and he had a hard-on. Her wedding dress is soiled
like a flag after a battle. Her skin glistens. Her feet are black. She shakes her head as if shaking water out of her hair. Her thirty little locks go wild. She stops. They no longer gyrate, only quiver. Now, she says, now’s the time for you to undo one …

T
he tama of a heart in tin was not sufficient. I was troubled from the moment the signalman said “Everywhere” and I knew—or I thought I knew—what it meant. Another tama was needed, made this time not in tin but with voices. Here it is. Place it by the candle when you pray …