Up on the overpass
the night was wide open
and blowing headlights like a sea. He stood against the wind and let it peel him
clean.


from "XVII. Walls"

...a night suddenly gone solid.

from "XVIII. She"

...Geryoncaught her other arm, it was like a handful of autumn.
from "XX. AA"

Each morning a shockto return to the cut soul.
*
Outside the natural world was enjoyinga moment of total strength. Wind rushed over the ground like a sea and battered upinto the corners of the buildings,garbage cans went dashing down the alley after their souls.
from "XXIII. Water"

Geryon's life entered a numb time, caught between the tongue and the taste.
*
...Geryon'swhole body formed one arch of a cry--upcast to that custom, the human customof wrong love.
from "XXIV. Freedom"

As the aeroplane moved over the frozen white flatland of the clouds Geryon lefthis life behind like a weak season.
*
Geryon closed his eyes and listened to engines vibrating deep in the moon-splashedcanals of his brain.
*
Outside a bitten moon rode fast over a tableland of snow.
from "XXVI. Aeroplane"

A cold sprayof fear shot across his lungs. 
*
Four of the roses were on fire.They stood up straight and pure on the stalk, gripping the dark like prophetsand howling colossal intimaciesfrom the back of their fused throats.
*
He moved off into the tragicomedy of the crowd.
from "XXVI. Mitwelt"

Pulling his body after himlike a soggy mattress Geryon trudged on uphill.
from "XXVIII. Skepticism"

Sunset begins early in winter, a bluntness at the edge of the light.
*
Geryon paused in his listening and saw the slopes of time spin backwards and stop.
*
It was the hour when the snow goes blueand streetlights come on and a hare maypause on the tree line as still as a word in a book.
*
His eye traveled to the clock at the front of the room and he fell into the poolof his favorite question.
from "XXIX. Slopes"



In the UK, you can buy Autobiography of Red from Hive, supporting local independent shops, here.