July 04, 2005
Spring Follows Autumn and Vice Versa
At one point along the southern edge of the river the Mondial Moquette building, perched on supports above its parking lot, hung out almost over the water, leaving a covered area set along the stone retaining wall that kept the river on course through the city. It was here that the the drunken and exhausted often stayed, the sans-abri and vagabonded, and where any number of sexual trysts, some of which involved other transactions as well, went unrecorded. One day I passed a man seated on the stone ground, shirtless, with a straw hat and a pipe under his moustache, a small gray Olivetti portable, not much more than a rat upon which one could type, on the stones next to him.
What is remarkable to me is that this passage smelled strongly of urine, meaning that time after time, the gentlemen -- one rarely saw a woman down here -- chose to piss against a column rather than into the river. What sort of habit or reverence this might be, I cannot claim to understand.
Posted by jane at July 4, 2005 05:59 AM | TrackBack