i was floating, flying around the pointed spires of an underground cathedral. it was dark. i dipped down farther into chambers filled with toys arranged in alphabetical order. couples throughout the 1920s enjoyed prosperity, but one couple from the class of 1929 prepared to persevere. i floated to their restaurant table & overheard them talk. the ( Read more... )

"One for the wax and one for the flesh,
one for the living and one for the dead ( Read more... )

Borzois at her beck and call amble forth, rearing
At miniature crocodile that crawls before her.
Snap, snap go its little jaws. It bites her pearls ( Read more... )

With satanic slouch she slinks and glides ( Read more... )

ping › Ch.: cake
sucette › Fr.: lollipop
croccantes › nut brittles
pastilla › Lat.: 'little cake'
gorge d'ange › angels' throats
kurat al milh › ball of sweet salt
Indian salt › medieval term for sugar
bêtises › Fr.: 'sillies'; sticky little mints ( Read more... )

"She only believed in intimacy and proximity, in confessions born in the darkness of a bedroom, in quarrels born of alcohol, in communions born of exhausting walks through the city. She only believed in those words which came like the confessions of criminals after long exposure to hunger, to intense lights, to cross-questioning, to violent tearing ( Read more... )

     "So delicacy and violence are about to meet and challenge each other ( Read more... )

gondola, black magic, Lady Macbeth, wax replica, bloodstained, molted feathers, headdress, wigs, tiger stripes, eye patch, Lalique diadem, black arts, séances, death flowers, specter, puppet, glittering, dinner guest, tea, costume jewelry, oil, roses, umbrella, sirens, nimble, plummet, uproar, violet ( Read more... )

cigarette burns appear on the
title cards, heralding a new reel
and a shower of white sparks
and flecks and thin lines rain
down the silent movie picture.

beware the thirteenth room ( Read more... )