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Hemingwayesque
by Ken Harnisch“Is that all you care about?”
She said.
“Getting me to bed?”
“Actually, no,” he said.
“I care about things other than mere seduction.
I am, after all, a great conversationalist,
And I know how to converse in languages
You’ve never heard, and may not want to.”
“And those are?”
“I speak in tongues, in romance. I speak of dying hearts
And loves gone wrong. I speak of unions broken
By the onslaught of weariness, and the eyes of
Adoring strangers. I speak of temptations
Without end, and the endlessly tempting
Who, one day, even the most stalwart
Cannot bear to resist, or can make no argument
Against.”
“And am I one of those?” she said, wistfully.
“Stalwart, yet ready to break at the utterance of
Another word from the master of long-lost romance
And its dying languages?”
“Perhaps,” He said. “You seem to be translating well as I speak.
As if you know the words. And their meaning.”
She smiled. “I suppose,” she said, “you like bullfighting, too.”
And he said, “Good god, no. That is so horridly inhumane.” 08/20/2007 Posted on 08/20/2007
Copyright © 2024 Ken Harnisch
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