THE STREET AT THE END OF THE WORLD

“Haven’t we been down this street before? I think we have; I think they move it every few years, but it keeps coming back with its ravens and dead branches, its crumbling curbs, its lines of people just stepping from a landscape that goes blank the moment they leave it. And what of the walled city with its circling swallows and the sun setting behind it, haven’t we seen that before? And what of the ship about to set off to the isle of black rainbows and midnight flowers, and the bearded tour guides waving us on?” “Yes, my dear, we have seen them all, but now you must hold my arm and close your eyes.”