I Don't Like Things Held Up Before

Finally The Homeless Eel Marked Its Territory, I Suppose, And The Doctor Lay Heavily Upon Me, Moist With Sweat.

I Don't Know When We'll See Each Other Again Or What The World Will Be Like When We Do. We May Both Have Seen Many Horrible Things. But I Will Think Of You Every Time I Need To Be Reminded That There Is Beauty And Goodness In The World.

As An American Man Of The 1990s Writing About A Japanese Woman Of The 1930s, I Needed To Cross Three Cultural Divides - Man To Woman, American To Japanese, And Present To Past.

And When I Raised Myself To Look At The Man Who'd Spoken, I Had A Feeling Of Leaving My Misery Behind Me There On The Stone Wall.

And Then I Became Aware Of All The Magnificent Silk Wrapped Around My Body, And Had The Feeling I Might Drown In Beauty. At That Moment, Beauty Itself Struck Me As A Kind Of Painful Melancholy.