7 and edits

idumea/content/005.tex

@@ -75,39 +75,46 @@ She smiled --- another blessing! --- and nodded to me.
 ``She has, at that,'' I said.
 
 ``We sat in the solarium and spoke about what reading \emph{is.} She spoke of taking a story or a poem and wrapping oneself up in it. She gave me an example. She recited a poem:
+\newpage
 
 \begin{verse}
-Too many suits move in too many lines.\\
+``Too many suits move in too many lines.\\
 They circle banquet tables, hawk-eyed,\\
-hunting crudites, canapés, bruscheta.\\
+hunting crudites, canapés, bruschetta.\\
 Fingers ferry food — fish, perhaps — finding\\
 slack-jawed mouths already open,\\
 squawking at wayward children\\
 or bemoaning The Market,\\
-whatever that may be.\\
-At some point, who cares how long ago,\\
+whatever that may be.
+
+``At some point, who cares how long ago,\\
 death surfaced, claimed one, submerged again.\\
 Who knows how well they knew him,\\
 their backs turned, studiously\\
-deciding that he is no longer of them?\\
-One could never guess.\\
-We can say his suit was very fine, perhaps,\\
+deciding that he is no longer of them?
+
+``One could never guess.
+
+``We can say his suit was very fine, perhaps,\\
 that the room is tastefully furnished,\\
-the coffin silver, the bar, open,\\
+the casket silver, the bar, open,\\
 quite good, and none of them are drunk yet,\\
-or at least none look it.\\
-"Good man, good man," they mutter,\\
+or at least none look it.
+
+``\,``Good man, good man,'' they mutter,\\
 doing all they can to convince each other\\
 through well-rehearsed performances,\\
-that this must be the case.\\
-The silently bereaved already sit graveside."
+that this must be the case.
+
+The silently bereaved already sit graveside.''
 \end{verse}
 
-I turned those words over and over in my head for a minute, since The Woman had seemed quite comfortable sitting in silence with me. She used that time to drink her water while I played back the words again and again, looking down at my paws, and then returned my gaze to hers. ``There is a difference between the performance of grief and grieving, is there not?''
+\newpage
+\noindent I turned those words over and over in my head for a minute, since The Woman had seemed quite comfortable sitting in silence with me. She used that time to drink her water while I played back the words again and again, looking down at my paws, and then returned my gaze to hers. ``There is a difference between the performance of grief and grieving, is there not?''
 
 ``It is as you say. There is performed grief and performative grief. We of the tenth stanza were quite sad when Lagrange came back with us but not Should We Forget. We received condolences from many, some flowers and many kind words. Ever Dream came over and spoke with me about grief as we sat out on the field, where she said,''It is quite sad, is it not? To lose someone you have known for so long is quite sad.'' I agreed, and then drew a line around the topic.'' She performed such a motion now, describing an arc before her with one of her well kept claws, before dismissing it with a wave. ``This was grief performed.''
 
-I nodded, and in my heart, I think I knew what was coming next, for I found my muscles bunching up as in in preparation for something --- flight, perhaps? I do not know, my friends.
+I nodded, and in my heart, I think I knew what was coming next, for I found my muscles bunching up as if in preparation for something --- flight, perhaps? I do not know, my friends.
 
 ``And Warmth In Fire came over, too, so that it could sit at our table and weep rather than eat. Ey wept, and then asked to retreat, and we guided her up to Should We Forget's room so that they could lay in her bed for a while in silence. When it came back downstairs, ey thanked us kindly and left, and when we went back upstairs to look, there was a flower wrought out of some subtly glowing metal left on Should We Forget's pillow. It lays there still.''