for Katherine

The fire began in the kitchen and spread to the hotel dinning room.

In this document, its pose chipped and flaking, I have evidence of a life once lived, proof that I once passed this way and thought to have love and understanding, passion and forgiveness, if not finally for my soul then for the condition of all things natural in the body and in the heart, which is always large and hungry and wanting. Nicholaas (sic) Van Tassel, West Palm Beach, Florida, September 23, 1933