rejected applications to the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung: DOC. NO. 39D500E72

in the long light of your fear i cast a shadow. shape goes; your blindness
a scotch-scented thing that throws you back. we have other resources, you

& i--an edged appraisal, a line of sight, your slouch, loud laughter
bellying the night. what is there to say? i am your cipher, the knife-

edge of my outline your refuge. i do not know the substance of your need.
i phenomenal, a trick of light diffracting your desire. but the evening

stretches. adrift we stop each other's gaps. my city grown strange & i
vagrant: a minor storm in your turbulence that might otherwise lay waste

to a system. we shall not meet again, but in an hour of lucidity we honed
our teeth. as mean as that. you would sell me at the next port of call.