A man stands in a semi-crowded piazza. It’s like this every night. Europe. The buildings and the fountain and the people are ornate, ancient. Maybe eastern Europe. I’m standing there and listening to him. A couple of ancient people do the same.

He’s got keen eyes, twinkling. He’s holding a typewriter to his chest between both hands. Not hugging. His fingers dance on the keyboard. He’s playing the typewriter as he would play the accordion. He’s good. In my head his music sounds good. Other people in the piazza seem to agree: some woman says somewhere, “He’s a poet!” He’s got a hat laid out on the sidewalk, but facing down. In this strange, good music, it seems reasonable to assume the hat is being worn by someone who just finished drowning himself in the piazza. He’s got a cardboard sign next to the hat. It says “Remember to use punctuation!” Like that, with the exclamation. More and more people gather to hear the poet. He’s probably Charles Bukowski. His fingers glide effortlessly over his instrument. I’m trying to catch his gaze but his eyes glide too, like his fingers, over me, over each man and woman in the crowd. Now there’s a real crowd, yeah, and they push me back, now I have to stand on tip toe to try and catch a glimpse of these gleaming eyes. The music changes.

You’ll never got out of the piazza, I’m thinking.