Anne Carson

Beginnings are special
because most of them are fake.
The new person you become
with that first sip of wine
was already there.

Stones make my brother happy,

thought Geryon and he studied stones as he trotted along behind.

So many different kinds of stones,

the sober and the uncanny, lying side by side in the red dirt.

Hand in hand on the first day of school

Geryon crossed this alien terrain with his mother.

eyes terrible holes.

Geryon’s anger was total.

The blank caught fire and burned to baseline. Geryon ran.

The word each blew towards him and came apart on the wind.

Geryon had always

had this trouble: a word like each,

when he stared at it, would disassemble itself into separate letters and go.

The letters themselves could be found hung on branches or furniture in the area.

began Geryon’s nightlife.

Before this time Geryon had not lived nights just days and their red intervals.

Voyaging into the rotten ruby of the night became a contest of freedom

and bad logic.