Jonathan Aaron

For Anna Brodsky

A gypsy girl decides to visit her grandmother on the other side of the desert. Carrying a staff, a jar of water to quench her thirst, and a lute for songs to keep her company, she travels all day. It’s getting dark when she arrives at an oasis. After she eats a few dates and drinks some water, she picks up her...

In his ‘Autobiography’, Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71) tells of summoning demons in the Roman Colosseum with the aid of a priest adept in the black arts. The next night, in hopes of clearer communication with the underworld, they return and call up the demons again.

This time his spells produce a larger, more unruly crowd from hell. The priest looks pleased, a little anxious, too....

I woke to your knocking, convinced someone was patrolling the corridor, hammering the doors. The heat was intense, and I wished it would rain. Your name came to me, and I thought about all I’d once known about you but forgot, and once again I saw those glossy textbook illustrations full of bright colours, capital letters, Latin names, those likenesses that used to take my breath away in...