A note on reading:

This is a lyrical hypertext essay. However, it is linear, so if you follow all the links, you will never lose your place or miss part of the text. Feel secure: you'll begin at the beginning and end at the end.

This essay is formatted to work with Firefox. However, any browser will work--it might not look quite right. You must enable popopups for this site. Make your browser window wide enough that all the text on this screen appears without needing to scroll sideways.

Words that are Bold Italic are pop-ups. Roll your mouse over them. They are not ads.

So disable your pop-up blocker

Links are often in red and always are underlined. They move you forward through the piece.