Another cycle completes, stars spin with the sound of calendar pages, and the bats are once more beneath their bridge. The heat and humidity begin their steady encroachment upon the city, breathing at my doorstep, getting down to business a few minutes earlier each day. It is spring, so everything is tinged with an ecstatic madness, as though sex could leap from the trees, coffee cups, anywhere. All people shine with mystery. All people are generous and kind, and even their narcissism becomes a wonderful twisted mirror, scattering light.

Today I received a letter from the Texas Department of Public Safety. Inside I found a plastic card bearing my photo, my face already strange. They wanted to let me know that I live here now. Officially.