King of Swords

There are days when I think everyone is happier than me; and there are days when I feel happier than I had thought possible.
For ten years I lay in chains, and then the sunlight came.
Six years passed, and I found myself tied to the rest of them. There was no sunlight, only a different set of shadows. I took the train to the banlieues on my afternoons off, and walked in the open spaces where the sunlight fell. When it rained, I sat in cafés and smoked, popping sugar cubes into my coffee-cups until they were nothing but syrup.
When I met Gracie, I described my life as a poetic experiment; I don’t think she knew how to react. I never saw her again. She was beautiful; or at least, had big tits.
After a brief period of fearless, searching moral inventory, I moved on to the more expensive vintages, and worked through them to the heights of d’Yquem. This was about the time I started taking the 601AB to Clichy-sous-Bois, and I dreamed of the way out of the caves every night.