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Back Loop Save as PDF
Chapters (33)
  1. Loop
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. 10
  12. 11
  13. 12
  14. 13
  15. 14
  16. 15
  17. 16
  18. 17
  19. 18
  20. 19
  21. 20
  22. 21
  23. 22
  24. 23
  25. 24
  26. 25
  27. 26
  28. 27
  29. 28
  30. 29
  31. 30
  32. A note on the text
  33. Copyright

Now that I think about it, sexual metaphors are astonishing. Especially bad metaphors, astonishing like the bearded lady’s circus act. Bad poetry is astonishing because it’s so monstrous. It has all the features we recognise, and yet that hypertrichosis too.

Today I talked to two poets, one bad and one good. Maybe some company is better indoors and some is better outdoors. A bad poet might be good company in the street, but in a living room what you want is a nice long conversation. There are exceptions. My friend Luis Felipe is a good poet, and you can talk to him both in the street and at home. So the previous assertion should be taken as another artificial plant and my comment about Luis Felipe as an artificial flower.

I came back to my room to read for a bit. I found this from William Hazlitt: ‘All that part of the map that we do not see before us is a blank.’

Is the violent part of the map a blank?

Mexico City, seen through the aeroplane window, is bigger than the ball of plasticine a child has just squashed onto the map of Mexico this evening. We make the world to the measure of our hands. But everything has a scale.

Violence has scales.

Any drawing, painting, photograph, lithograph, any picture of a bird, small or large, however rough the likeness, conveys the idea of freedom. Birds are a symbol of freedom.

An open notebook is also a symbol of freedom.

There’s a bird on the Mexican flag. The eagle devouring the serpent. I wonder if the flag contains any clues.

‘Fly away with me.’ If I could turn into any bird I’d choose a swallow. Have you noticed that swallows normally form pairs, Jonás?

Now I’m one of those planes we hear from the apartment on Sunday nights, now I’m flying over the city. From up here it doesn’t seem like Wild is the Wind. Instead, Mexico City looks so docile. And the country looks so docile, too, on the map on the aeroplane screen.

6

6

We argued on the phone.

It’s hard for me as well, Jonás. Believe me. I never met her. I’m trying to support you from here. Through you, through your dad and Marina, I love her too. Believe me. If I could do something I would. Believe me.

I’m going to try something. Let’s see if this notebook works. Ana? Ana, can you hear me?