no, Elizabeth
I cannot let you play with the hoop
it is so great a diversion you would be overcome with delight and swoon dead away
Thomas says holding the miniature portraits is every bit as frolicsome as having the circle and stick
Thomas is a damned liar
the hoop will roll
and the stick will push
and i will run behind
and nothing will change
nothing will ever change
yes, it pops out of the box every time
excessively diverting
is this all you do all day, Charles?
and this will be my life, then
blocks can only alleviate sorrow
they cannot cure
a jump rope, a noose
no difference
no difference
if only i could jump away from myself
who is really being controlled here
which is the toy and which is the boy
in the end, perhaps it does not matter
riding you means nothing
perhaps even cruelty has lost its zest, now at the end
I don’t
I think perhaps I don’t want to wear matching Orientalist garb as we ride imaginary horses into the Bosporus any longer
please end this
