The janitor was saying how much he loved the king the night I joined the Party. Down in the basement the Commissar forced an old comrade to drink urine the night I joined the Party. A wave advanced on Pakistan and a master of the highest state advised that nothing changes the night I joined the Party. The dove came down on the workers’ café and I crossed myself with a woman’s hand the night I joined the Party. My wife spoke to the lawyer and my daughter had no underpanties on under the clothes of her first communion dress the night I joined the Party. I myself was calm, I wasn’t angry anymore, I was tired, I took up my pen, my sacred pen, my pen of intricate love, my pen of longing, and that was the night I joined the Party. Those concerned mainly with beauty forgot who I was, I myself forgot who I was, I even forgot the star-ringed nipples of the girl I didn’t get, and they scratched my name off the bronze memorial to the fallen sparrow the night I joined the Party. Because I could not stand the boredom of the right and the boredom of the night I joined the Party. The little ghosts of crickets sang Another Man Done Gone, and pebbles flew from my forehead against the stained-glass windows of the C.I.A. on the night that I joined the Communist Party.