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Madagascar Diary
IV. Numerology
(January 25, 1975)
Nine thousand miles away
my father has a birthday
his sixty-sixth.
At 10:00 a.m. the General
takes eighty-eight seconds
to dissolve his cabinet
of thirty-two months.
Unaware I wander in the
Zoma bargaining for a bookbag
three thousand francs malgaches.
At 3:15 p.m. I sink into
a butterfly chair beside the
AGIP pool the bald man
circles: Have you heard anything
at the university the last three
days? I tried to ask Duval
who owes me something
since Saigon. I lifted his
ass, blown out of his
pants in Œ54. Anyway,
I¹m giving a party.
Mark your calendar
March 17th.
Four hundred miles south,
Debbie blows the town away.
From Manafiafy David hikes
twenty kilometers
through fallen trees
to find Ft.Dauphin
90 percent destroyed.
Nine thousand miles away
my father has a birthday,
his last.
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