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---
title: Window
genre: prose
project:
title: "Buildings out of air: Paul in the Woods"
css: paul
order: 18
next:
- title: Question
link: question
- title: Writing
link: writing
previous:
- title: Tapestry
link: tapestry
- title: Wallpaper
link: wallpaper
...
_**HYMN 386: JOKES**_
_"Tell us a joke" everyone asks of the clown. He sits on a log and begins to
think. Everyone waits gap-mouthed in anticipation. A slight breeze ruffles
the clown's coat, his pompom buttons, his bright red hair. His nose becomes
redder in the cold. Hours pass. All but the most dedicated of joke listeners
leave him to rot ~~for all they may care~~._
_The clown opens his mouth to speak but no words come out. A tear falls down
his cheek, and another. He begins to sob. The last joke listener comes over
to comfort him. She puts a hand on his shoulder. He looks up at her, red
face, red nose, white lips, and says ~~"Thank you."~~ He vanishes from the
clearing. The last joke listener sits on the log and looks up at the sky.
The moon is full. The world creaks on its axis._
Paul looked up to the space on the wall where a window should be. The shadow
of his face wavered in the candle light. He looked back down at the card he'd
been writing on. He read the card. He crossed out the _for all they may
care_ in the first paragraph, and _"Thank you"_ from the second one. "What
could he say" he thought to himself. "What could he possibly say to her." He
went outside to clear his head with a cigarette. He took his axe with him
this time.
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