Raskolnikov hasn’t slept. For days. In his brain, something like white. A wave stopped in mid-leap. Thick, slow, white. Or maybe it’s brain. Brain in his brain. Old woman’s brain on the filthy floor of his brain.
A nail gun fires into wooden scaffolding up the hill— the skeleton of a roof unfolding above the trees. Rat tat tat. Bunk bunk bunk. There is music,
Last of the Romany race, Haply a king and queen, Meal it with sorry grace On the highway border of green.
