By Carlos (carlos.a.rubinstein@mci.com)
Date: 28 August 1997

Broadcasting

We lost the book.
I left it on the windowsill,
And we left the room to take a bath.
We had been making love for quite a while when I remembered about the
Book, that book she wrote in while she was away.

I'll never know what's in it.

It had been on the windowsill, right above us.
We were making love, and I reached up to hold on to the windowsill.
It wasn't there. I jumped up, full of fear that the book would be gone.
The book she put her heart into, while she was away.
It was gone. Gone with her heart in it.

We both looked out the window, down to the street.
"I think it's still in the apartment", she said.
"I just know it went out the window", I said.
We were in the middle of making love, and two minutes later we were 
Halfway out the window. Completely naked, and halfway out.

I checked the house to see if I had not absently left it elsewhere.
I had not.
We had not finished making love, and the book with her heart in it had
Gone out the window.

"I really think it's in the house somewhere", she said, not concerned
That her heart was no longer in the room with us, while we made love.
"It _must_ have gone out the window", I said.

I threw on loose clothes, the kind you keep around just to throw on after
You make love, although we hadn't finished. But how could we?
Her heart in the book had just flown out the window. 
The book she put her heart into, while she was away.
She was back, but the book was gone.

I ran downstairs to see if the book was on the sidewalk. No good.
I checked all the ledges of the building, the building I live in,
The building she had just come home to for the first time.
The book was not there. 

If it didn't go down, then where did it go? Up? 

It must have gone up.
Up in space. The book went out the window, caught the wind, and kept 
Rising, her heart beating inside it. 

Up past the birds, 
Up past the clouds, 
Up past the planes.

On it went.

The blue sky turned to black, and the stars came out. It tried to keep
Going, a little book with the heart of the woman I love inside it.

It wanted space, open space. 
But gravity stopped it, held it, felt its love from the heart inside,
And sent it orbiting. 

And that's where it must be. We went back to making love, a small magic
In the darkness. Her heart was with me in the bed, even though it was
Out in space.

And that's where it must be. Earth's newest satellite, a little book 
With her heart inside, broadcasting her love while the other satellites
Broadcast television.