The Byzantine

[Knot]

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Hi TqB.

1) is it really obvious that Purple Dragon is LSD? I thought that would be an obscure reference.

Whilst I've never heard of Purple Dragon, 'tab' told me that it was acid. I don't think 'tab' is what you'd call 'an obscure reference'

2) "war that sex has always been" how do you mean "it doesn't feel like a truth"? You mean it's not true in every case? Or not true at all?

Partly it's the 'underground war' (sexual competition is hardly 'underground'), second, it doesn't feel particularly revelatory, 'winning a woman' (well, that could be phrased better) and lastly I am not sure it's true in every case.

Then there the problem of how this 'truth' differs from the conclusion N comes to in the final verse. They seem awfully similar to me. And you spell it out too much, it's not elliptical enough to justify the Byzantium line (which is a nice line).

Consider ...

I had a tab of Purple Dragon,

you wanted to be there when I took it

because “that stuff is like truth serum”

but I took the acid without you. I lay on my bed

in the dilapidated GI housing I called home,

Outside the window a rodent crossed

the wire from the broken down garage

into the attic below which I lay watching

as the truth came out in my laughter.

I was devious, an actor who threaded my way ............... 'my' should be 'his'

to sex any way I could, like a high-wire

rat, a remorseless acrobat. As you once said,

I would have made a good citizen of Byzantium.



Best, Knot



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