"I suspect that for her the world was more accidental than any book's plot. Twice I saw her so irritated by a mystery that she half rose from the shadow of her chair and flung the paperback over the railing into the sea."
News item from the accidental
World: avalanche kills
Nine hikers on Mt Blanc.
Assignment: draft a novel
About nine healthy Europeans,
All their hopes and dreams,
And bring them together
On a mountain. The end.
More news: thirty-nine Nepalese
Die in a bus accident.
Assignment: plot a mystery
About thirty-nine diverse
Peasants and merchants.
Get inside their heads and prayers.
Put them on a bus. The end.
The same week: ninety-five
Nigerians burn to death
Collecting spilled fuel
From a wrecked petrol truck.
Assignment: complete an epic
Romance about the intertwined
Lives of nearly a hundred people,
Each negotiating a private world.
Spill a fuel tanker on the road
And have them rush together
To gather free fuel. The end.