An Imaginary Crime

Here are three favorites from my fabled pencil-and-index-card period, in which, like a demented phrenologist, I traced and embraced the divots, pits, and grain, to reveal — what, exactly, is for you to decide. A starry night? An ocean of crows? A rider that makes his own road? Look again. Take your time. Each is revealing. Each is disturbed. Each contains great hypnotic power. Are you awake? Asleep? Here? There? Everywhere? Imagine being plucked off the streets for an imaginary crime — hardly uncommon these days — and being found with these in your possession. Suddenly your crime is imagination. “We found him with these — cards.” Now your trouble really begins. Now, you are nowhere.

[ 2002 ]