On One Occasion I Shared A Bed

Rome Was Mud And Smoky Skies; The Rank Smell Of The Tiber And The Exotically Spiced Cooking Fires Of A Hundred Different Nationalities. Rome Was White Marble And Gilding And Heady Perfumes; The Blare Of Trumpets And The Shrieking Of Market-women And The Eternal, Sub-aural Hum Of More People, Speaking More Languages Than Gaius Had Ever Imagined Existed, Crammed Together On Seven Hills Whose Contours Had Long Ago Disappeared Beneath This Encrustation If Humanity. Rome Was The Pulsing Heart Of The World.

[t]he House Of Maidens Was For Little Girls Whose Whole Duty In Life Was To Spill Things, Break Things, And Forget Things . . . Until They Had Spilled, Broken, And Forgotten Everything They Could, And Thus Made Room In Their Lives For A Little Wisdom.

We Were Discussing Civilization And The Fact That Young Men Among The Greeks At That Time Were Idiots And Uneducated, So The Men Had Emotional And Friendly Relationships With Members Of Their Own Sex

Flowers And Fruit Are Only The Beginning. In The Seed Lies The Life And The Future.

Love Is The Only Prayer I Know.