The second typescript
[Page 24]
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| Engineer Y said, "The clouds hang in the heavens |  | |
| Like hungry hawks above a cornfield." It is time | | |
| To go inside now, and curl up with the misery of a good book.? | |
| The wind has stopped, but the magnolia blossoms still | ||
| Fall with a plop onto the dry, spongy earth; . | | |
| The evening air is pestiferous with midges. |
| There is only one way of completing the puzzle: | ||
| By finding a bat[?]XXX hog-shaped piece that is light green shading to buff at one side. | |
| It is the beginning of March, a few | ||
| Russet and yellow wall-flowers are blooming in the border | ||
| Protected by moss-grown, fragmentary masonry. | ||
| Termites are at work in the long central roof-beam. | |
| One morning you appear at breakfast | ||
| Dressed, as for a voyage journey, in your worst suit of clothes. | | |
| And over a pot of coffee, or, more accurately, rusted water, | ||
| Announce your intention of leaving me alone in this cistern-like house. | ||
| In your own best interests I shall decide not to believe you. |
| I think there is a funny sandbar | ||
| Beyond the old boardwalk | ||
| Your intrigue makes you understand. |
| "At thirty-two I came up to take my examination at the university. | ||
| The U wax factory, it seemed, wanted a new general manager. | ||
| I was the sole applicant for the job, but it was refused me. | ||
| So I have preferred to finish my life | ||
| In the quietude of this floral retreat." |
| The tiresome old man is telling us his life story. |
| Trout are circling under water-- |
| Masters of eloquence | ||
| Glisten on the pages of your book | ||
| Like mountains veiled by water or the sky. |
| The "second position" | ||
| Comes in the seventeenth year, | ||
| Watching the meaningless gyrations of flies above a sill. |
