Meg Harper had three apples and a bottle of red wine. She bought a dill pickle and several slices of roast beef. When Merce was in residence inn Illinois, ,he stayed at the Johnston’s , took all of his meals with the family. Betty made box lunches when he was too busy to return home. Betty’s cooking is delicious, nutritious. For two years, I got heaver and heavier. “When it comes to dessets,” Betty advises, “through health out of the window”. (Through eating nothing but thistles, Mila Repa took the form of a thistle. He was able to transport himself wherever he wished. High above, thistle floated past. One farmer to the other, “Pay no attention: It’s just Mila Repa,”.

But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.

The Surrealist painter Magritte commented on this always-present gap between words and seeing in a painting called The Key of Dreams.

The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe. In the Middle Ages when men believed in the physical existence of Hell the sight of fire must have meant something different from what it means today. Nevertheless their idea of Hell owed a lot to the sight of fire consuming and the ashes remaining – as well as to their experience of the pain of burns.

Mama, just killed a man
Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger, now he's dead
Mama, life had just begun
But now I've gone and thrown it all away
Mama, ooh, didn't mean to make you cry
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters

Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time
Goodbye, everybody, I've got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, ooh (any way the wind blows)
I don't wanna die
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all

I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?
Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me
(Galileo) Galileo, (Galileo) Galileo, Galileo Figaro, magnifico
But I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity

Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?
No, we will not let you go (let him go)
We will not let you go (let him go)
We will not let you go (let me go)
Will not let you go (let me go)
Will not let you go (never, never, never, never let me go)
No, no, no, no, no, no, no

Oh, mamma mia, mamma mia
Mamma mia, let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me
So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye?
So you think you can love me and leave me to die?
Oh, baby, can't do this to me, baby
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here

Ooh
Ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah
Nothing really matters, anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me

Method

STEP 1: Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Butter 2 x 20cm round sandwich tins and line the bases with baking parchment. Tip all the sponge ingredients, apart from the food colouring, into a mixing bowl, then beat with an electric whisk until smooth.

STEP 2: Working quickly, weigh the mixture into another bowl to work out the total weight, then weigh exactly half the mixture back into the mixing bowl. Pick two of your colours and stir a little into each mix. Keep going until you are happy with the colour – the colour of the batter now will be very similar to the finished cake, so be brave! Scrape the different batters into the tins, trying to spread and smooth as much as possible – but try not to waste a drop of the batter – a rubber spatula will help you. Bake on the same oven shelf for 15-20 mins until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean. Don't worry if the sponges are thin, there are many layers.

STEP 3: Gently turn the cakes out onto a wire rack to cool. Wash the tins and bowls thoroughly, and start again from step 1 – this time using another two colours. Unless you’re making the optional pink layer, repeat one more time to get 6 sponges, all of different colours. Leave them all to cool.

STEP 4: To make the icing, very briefly beat the vanilla and soft cheese or mascarpone with an electric whisk until smooth. Sift in the icing sugar and gently fold in with a spatula. Be careful – the more you work it, the runnier it will get, increasing the chance of splitting.

STEP 5: Smear a little icing on your cake stand or plate – just a splodge to stick the first sponge. Start with the red, then spread with some icing right to the very edge. Repeat, sandwiching on top the orange, yellow, green, blue and finally purple sponges. Spread the remaining icing thickly all over the sides and top of the cake.

 Today I tried to thump a melon for freshness in the market. It shattered all over my pants. Same with grapefruit, tomato, bag of Fritos, and three pounds of pork tenderloins. Mind clearly elsewhere. Apologized to store manager only to hear, “It’s you, isn’t it? It’s really you!” Shoppers began to crowd. Only then did I realize that, in haste to complete errands, I left the apartment without my fake eyeglasses. By evening news everyone knew that I shop at the Food Emporium on 82nd and third. Momentarily considered reversing Earth’s rotation to erase incident, but I’ve done that so often lately I’m not even sure what month it is anymore. When co-worker asked where I went to lunch today, I accidentally blurted out “Istanbul.” She laughed it off as a joke. Went to make duplicates of some old columns and woke up two hours later in the copy room, drooling and unable to lift my limbs. Great, I can be felled by Xerox machines. This is on top of the Kryptonite, red sun rays, and certain dairy products (plus I’ve had noticeable difficulty digesting raw vegetables recently).

Later, co-workers planned to gather at the Pig and Whistle across the street for a few drinks. Would have loved to go (naturally, Lois was going to be there) but what’s-his-face, the guy with the name I can never pronounce, is holding City Hall hostage again, so I begged off. No wonder I don’t have any friends at work.