DONALD BARTHELME
509
-Oh.
-You see.
-I
see.
-I
could have done better. But 1 don't know how. Could
have done better, cleaned better or cooked better or 1don't know.
Better.
-You smile. And the angels sing. La la la la la la la la la la
la lao
-Blew it. Blew it. Had a clown at the wedding he officiated
standing there in his voluptuous white costume his drum and
trumpet at his feet. He said, "Do you, Harry... " and all that.
The guests applauded, the clown band played, it was a brilliant
occasIon.
-Our many moons of patience and accommodation. Tricks
and stunts unknown to common cunts .
-The guests applauded. Above us, a great tent with red and
yellow stripes.
-The unexploded pillow and the simple, blunt sheet.
-I
was fecund, savagely so.
-Painting dead women by the hundreds in passionate
imitation of Delacroix.
-Sailing after lunch and after sailing, gin. Do not go into
the red barn, he said. 1 went into the red barn. Julia. Swinging
on a rope from hayloft to tack room. Gazed at by horses with
their large, accepting eyes. They somehow looked as if they
knew.
- You packed hastily reaching the station just before mid–
night counting the pennies in your purse.
- Yes. Regaining the city, plunged once more into ac–
ti vities.
-Acquired busts of certain notables, marble, silver, bronze.
The Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs .
-Wailed a bit now and then into the ears of friends and
caverns of the telephone.
-But 1 rallied. Rallied.
-Made an effort. Made the effort.
-To make soft what is hard. To make hard the soft. To
conceal what is black with use, under new paint. Check the
