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164
from
Goodbye Matilija
(1992)
All stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no
true-story teller who would keep that from you.
-- hemingway
on the north fork
Dream Vision
Well, it's an old aff air --
Stronger than ever, though,
This twenty-seventh year
That I've been coming here.
The memory stays clear
How other places, too,
Brought transient happiness;
I was just passing through
And therefore could avoid
Seeing them destroyed.
But much the same is so
Matilija, with you
As from the fi rst I knew:
I have been passing through --
The diff erence being, here
Your ruin, though delayed
A bit will be, I guess,
The one I'll stay and bear.