gray matter

Something called 'real life' travels on a bicycle along the dreary avenues, out in the Sunset, somewhere near Wawona.

The fog rolls in from the Pacific.

Though it is noon, the sun is not shining.

The future is uncertain, the landscape leads nowhere in particular, a certain political party is calling for a strict interpretation of the Constitution.

Left to The Great Highway. Onward toward the ocean. Right at Balboa. Up the hill toward home.

The traveler views the road in much the same way the poet views the piece of paper.

"At such times, we feel that he fictional world we encounter and enjoy is more real than the real world itself" writes Orhan Pamuk in his new book, The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist.