the skinamatographers chateau

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'the lion in love,' 1883, frederick stuart church.

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shel silverstein's "lafcadio: the lion who shot back" is a 1963 children's book.
i failed to prove that there is something out there, something she could not find in her own time: i have found no trace, not among dotted islands and archipelagos nor underside the leaves and canopies of the vast and wide foothill ranges, not from the peak tops and rock faces to which they guide, and not under the snow caps, and not down into the cities and alleys from there, in those places where it all shakes out when you turn the nation on its side -- not in the eyes or inbetween teeth. this three-decade expedition, building on centuries of familial field research, has not discovered that thing, beyond the subtle seafoam wash of its hurricane on that parental promise, that "if nothing else, i've loved you," that in all the ruined notes only the ink of that phrase remains legible.
i'm leaning into the end.        till again, t.s.