Last Exit to Brooklyn

by Hubert Selby Jr.

For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. Ecclesiastes 3:19

moving her to a strange romance where love was born of affection, not sex; wanting to share just this, just these three minutes of the Bird with Vinnie, these three minutes out of space and time and just stand together, perhaps their hands touching, not speaking, yet knowing … just stand complete with and for each other not as man and woman or two men, not as friends or lovers, but as two who love … these three minutes together in a world of beauty, a world where there wasnt even a memory of johns or punks, butch queens or Arthurs, just the now of love …

Shes going to have a baby—O is she? I thought perhaps it was gas. They roared with laughter

He wished to krist he could take the sounds and shove them up her ass. Take the goddamn kid and jam it back up her snatch.

Harry continued to move with the same satisfying rhythm; continued to blend his moans with hers through the whirlygig of confusion; bewildered but not distracted or disturbed by these new emotions giving birth to each other in his mind, but just concentrating on the pleasure and allowing it to guide him as Alberta had.

Jimmy got one cornered by the steps. He stood just in front of Jimmy on the other side of a baby carriage. The kid feinted to one side then the other. Finally Jimmy committed himself to one side and the kid whirled around the opposite side pulling over the carriage, the baby falling out and rolling along the ground, stopping as it hit the hedge.