 |
|
   |
|
INTRODUCING THE FLYING CARPET This is my flying carpet: an oblong grove of blue cypresses, symmetrically planted, two by two, male and female, frequented by golden pheasants and small tabby cat-like mammals, tame, but keeping themselves to themselves; at each corner a fruit tree and in their boughs four phoenixes, hanging. A phoenix is a bird with grey plumage. These have enormous wings, grey and tattered, spread stiff against the deep sky. They hang head down, hooked by their bunched feet, swooping—though immobile— earthward now, with knots of blood black in the nostrils of their gaped beaks. Once, moving over the unseen world with a gale's speed, we encountered a Surprising Cloud of Swallows which fell like hailstones out of the still trees. I gathered them small and frozen in a basket. Since then so many Marvels have leaked away. Tonight, I am flying over your city. In the dead center of my flying world is a patch of crimson. There, set round with cypresses and fruit-trees, I have rooted my feet and am content with my four phoenixes and these my tamed birds and beasts.
| |
|
|
|
