SELF PORTRAIT WITH THE RADIO ON Last night I might have had Retsina and not cut myself shaving before bed had it not been for wishing to be elsewhere, goaded by the mirror to hurry, to clear its view of the room. Tonight will end much the same: watching a woman's hands pretend to know the piano keys, wishing to be fixed inside the song. When you visit the Oracle, it's best to have your question in mind as well as written on your hand. While a live rabbit or lamb might travel better than a statue, both are necessary forms of appreciation. The spoils of conquest or dumb luck, too. Laid against itself, notated in the player's and composer's mind, shadow becoming shadow and back again, to solid. The after-effect, peripatetic, multiphasic. If watered into bloom, again in the room, a hand coaxing a hand to become real. This could be the thing that lasts; Makes physical, thought. Is this how to remember? This could be the things that lasts.