Vol. 1 # 1
The Falling Leaf Review
August 19, 2016
won’t make you able, it will simply allow you to sidestep prima facie never will
to a stop to let off and on, all aboard. Three? Two? How many minutes at each
We did not consider if it were too far or not, just far enough, not far at all, we did not consider any of these, I could not say why. I would not try to. I would not spend a moment imagining why or how. Optimism is
platform? How long does the train travel between each stop, and how fast? How many minutes at what speed equals how far, length distance time--time and space are an indissoluble unity, the oneness of
often a delusion, a delusion often maintained by willfully forgetting the details how and how long, when and where and with what. How long could it be even if the train took forty minutes to get there? We
space and time is apparent in travel . . . no? I think it is. Distance and duration are either long or short. We were thinking of taking the train, take the train—if we took the train—we
thought we could walk it how could it be that we could not. A couple of hours? Maybe three . . . we did find the Long Island Rail Road schedule. We checked it and found that it was forty-three minutes by
would still have to take a cab to the train, and on the way back, a cab from the train to the motel, I mean why walk as far as we would have to walk to take the train and not instead take that time on the beach toward
train. When they came, would be a problem; our stop being the last, the End, Montauk. Fewer trains make it out this far. A train after Speonk—there is only one track, I think I remember, the last time I took
Southampton. We never drove out to Land’s End. We took the LIRR. We could walk to the Hampton Jitney in town; we could get this other bus just across the street from where we are staying, we could
notice was when I cannot say. One night going out to the point late, around eleven when we stepped aside, our eastbound train did, a sidetrack, and we waited nearly a half hour for the train going westbound to
take a cab, we could walk—I mean we could walk as anyone could walk. We could walk to California, but would we and in that would not we could not because will has as much to do with ability as any capability to
pass us. How far could it be if we walked, in time, how many hours, couldn’t we do it, on the beach, along the shore, I mean if we woke with the dawn and had breakfast and left right after, couldn’t we get to
do what we think we desire to do. And desire is everything. Will is desire; in fact in German, as in Anglo-Saxon, Will is desire, Willen to want to, so I will eat is I desire to eat, I want to eat, wanting, again, being
Southampton before lunch, I mean we could, couldn’t we, we wondered. Two stops on the train mean what to us walking; five minutes each stop at the stop coming
everything. If you want to, you will; if you do not, you did not want it badly enough. Willless perception? Desire is not torment.
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