My body surprised me this evening. It has grown thicker and harder, it moves fluidly - or, at least, with fluids - it holds me higher and steadier than it did before. With use, awareness spreads from its bipod, its perch behind the eyes, to every part of the body, from the feet, toughened and wrinkled with wastewater sloshing in unmended boots, to hands dark with red wine, black blood stigmata, to the unshaven face. My belly hangs strong now, not weak and pale, my chest moves with new muscle. My body is a revelation - I never knew I had it.

Le sang, he sang!
La vie, le vin!

I shall smoke and consult the oracle... Yesterday, visited, in a foreign land, and cursing before women, reading Melville and Conrad, I feel as if I have run away to sea, and return changed...