That read, Leave the country within 48 hours or

Suffer the consequences. It looked like a frail,

Frail piece of fragrant cake, hanging there like

A Marxist terrorist or euphoric business text.

In 21st-century woodcuts, for example, and recent

Pulse-pounding frescoes, pets become the new

Children, even as a sadist and a nincompoop

Embrace the nation-building challenge of the

Decade, along with its infamous synthetic turf,

Frozen potato products, a much reviled gigantic

Concrete bowl, and lots and lots of sofas. I had

A five-day hypomanic episode in the pampered,

Perfect grass to catch a drop of solitude. But it

Was frustrating to watch myself unconsciously

Ad-libbing an extra hop into the movement. Or the

Note of personal rancor—my own “Suez” moment.

They were ibis eggcups! They were the behemoth

Who snaps the ball, the multiple choices of a Scan-

tron test, invisible celestial interlocutors, doctrinal

Voids, economically independent soul mates! They

Possessed hundreds of pictures of women giving

Head and understood the weird drafts of freezer bags.

Their displeasure over one CIA exercise was quite

Outlandish and crashed emptily to earth. Here

The laurels seem equally distributable . . .

They were virtual Frenchmen; their limited public

Visibility allowed them to practice head-shrinking

In Oregon. They were domestic paragons! They

Were, of course, pillaged almost immediately

Afterward. Like some mild and generally useless

Tips or misspelled figures from Celtic myths,

They took the death of love as their special

Premonition. They had to backtrack elegantly,

Performing immediate dances with recyclables in

Hot plastic ponchos, enduring everything from

Laborious negotiations to painful rock music.

They were lubricious and empty-headed robots by

The time they got to me. It was a delicate day.

I tried to think of a more à la mode shade for

Operational flexibility and social bravado. The

Old ways had taught cadets to be bullies, and I

Fought the team’s traditional kelly green with the

Knucklebones of saints, not to mention at least one

Passive-aggressive screed. We’re talking about

Post-hostilities control and embrace of uncertainty,

A lack of curiosity about significant details. There’s

A lot of money to pay for this and the absence of

A president. There’s the residual anxiety. The rest

Of it is assembled from surgical tubing and a

Leather coin purse. It’s a Fragebogen, or question-

naire. P.S. the aroma of mugwort is also v. nice here:

You’re not going to tell me if it’s in the mail?

(A) Yes. (B) No. (C) I could shave my head and

Weave you a bracelet out of my hair? He looks

Soft. He’s a resolute nonconductor of electricity.

In spite of this, I still didn’t think the planned flow

Was right. All the A-Team guys wanted to be in on

Phase III, and now Georgia was the world’s only

Consumption superpower, leaving decapitation

Attacks and coulis-of-heirloom tomato appetizers

As our last resort. I called it, “Operation Provide

Comfort,” once unemployment reached 70 percent.