Once upon a time her love story snaked elegantly with its rhythmic pauses, silences, and spit out words. A maze led to broader spaces where there were garden walls and hand-dug lakes of golden fins and diamond surfaces. Scattered in the pathways were small garnet bowls of saffron, cinnamon, and cedar oil. In this place of no plot she gathered, dried, and twisted her allegories with strips of stained towels and ribbon. In this bejeweled chora the moist air was scented with bouquets of amethyst, opal, and ruby: Countless facets to be cut with the precision of a jeweler's saw or a poet's brutal artiface.