The Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson Read Free Book Online

the stars are really there? Well some are there but some burned out
     
    ten thousand years ago.
     
    I don’t believe that.
     
    How can you not believe it, it’s a known fact. But I see them. You see memories.
     
    Have we had this conversation before?
     
    Geryon followed Herakles to the back porch. They sat on opposite ends of the sofa.
     
    Do you know how far away some of those stars are?
     
    Just don’t believe it. Let’s see someone touch a star and not get burned. He’ll
     
    hold up his finger, Just a memory burn! he’ll say
     
    then I’ll believe it. Okay never mind stars what about sound, you’ve watched
     
    a man chop wood in a forest.
     
    No I do not watch men in forests.
     
    I give up. That would be very cold. What? That would be very cold,
repeated
     
    the grandmother from the porch swing.
     
    Watching men in forests? A memory burn. Ah. She’s right. Yes she is she
     
    had lung burn once
     
    and that was cold and don’t call me she when I’m right here.
     
    Sorry.
     
    You got lung burn in Hades? No it was in the Pyrenees I burned my lungs I had
     
    gone to St. Croix to photograph skiers
     
    that would be the winter Olympics 1936 Grushenk was competing do you know
     
    Grushenk? Well never mind he was very fast
     
    I sold a photograph of him in his extraordinary scarlet ski pants
     
    to
Life
magazine for a thousand dollars.
     
    That was a handsome sum in 1936. Don’t be patronizing it’s still a handsome sum
—
     
    for a photograph. Herakles’ father
     
    (she waved her hand towards the sofa but Herakles had gone back in the house)
     
    gave me less than half that for “Red Patience”
—
     
    you took a look at “Red Patience” didn’t you? I wish he hadn’t hung it in the kitchen
     
    much too dark in there
     
    people think it’s a black-and-white photograph of course nobody knows
     
    how to look at a photograph nowadays.
     
    No I saw the lava, is it lava? Of course yes you mean at the top of the cone.
     
    No I mean at the bottom
     
    of the picture on the trunk of one of the pine trees little red drops like blood.
     
    Ah yes very good the little red drops
     
    my signature. It is a disturbing photograph. Yes. But why?
     
    “Gaiety transfiguring all that dread.”
     
    Who said that? Yeats.
     
    Where did Yeats see a volcano? I believe he was talking about politics. No
     
    I don’t think that’s what I mean.
     
    Do you mean the silence. But all photographs are silent. Don’t be facile you
     
    might as well say all mothers
     
    are women. Well aren’t they? Of course but that tells you nothing. Question is
     
    how they use it—given
     
    the limits of the form— Does your mother live on the island? I don’t want
     
    to talk about my mother.
     
    Ah well. Silence then.
Herakles came out the door from the kitchen.
     
    Climbed over the back of the sofa
     
    and subsided into it lengthwise.
Your grandmother has been teaching me
     
    the value of silence,
said Geryon.
     
    I bet,
said Herakles. He turned to her.
It’s late Gram don’t you want to go to bed?
     
    Can’t sleep angel,
she said.
     
    Is your leg paining? I can rub your ankles. Come I’ll take you up.
     
    Herakles was standing in front of her
     
    and he lifted her towards him like snow. Geryon saw her legs were asymmetrical,
     
    one pointed up the other down and back.
     
    Goodnight children,
she called in her voice like old coals.
     
    May God favor you with dreams.
     
     

XXII. FRUIT BOWL
     
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    His mother was sitting at the kitchen table when Geryon opened the screen door.
     
     
    ————
     
    He had taken the local bus from Hades. Seven-hour trip. He wept most of the way.
     
    Wanted to go straight to his room
     
    and shut the door but when he saw her he sat down. Hands in his jacket.
     
    She smoked in silence a moment
     
    then rested her chin against her hand. Eyes on his chest.
Nice T-shirt,
she said.
     
    It was a red singlet with white