by David Rakoff
The fruit to the viewer. Or making some offering
To … Josh figured some boy,
But offering not sex, at all, but simply pure joy.
It was so pure, in fact, without smut, without guile,
That even Josh in his monkhood could not help but smile.
There was just so much Now that the picture encapsed
In the shot, this despite more than six decades elapsed.
Both the oranges’ skin and the girl’s sun-stroked flesh
Seemed similarly taut and impossibly fresh.
She’s standing and squinting, eyes half-closed from the sun
And laughing, delighted at what’s still to come.
A Note About the Author
David Rakoff wrote the bestsellers Fraud, Don’t Get Too Comfortable, and Half Empty. A two-time recipient of the Lambda Literary Award and a winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, he was a regular contributor to Public Radio International’s This American Life. His writing frequently appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Wired, Salon, GQ, Outside, Gourmet, Vogue, and Slate, among other publications. An accomplished stage and screen actor, playwright, and screenwriter, he adapted the screenplay for and starred in Joachim Back’s film The New Tenants, which won the 2010 Oscar for Best Short Film, Live Action. He died in August 2012 at the age of forty-seven, shortly after finishing this book.
Other titles by David Rakoff available in eBook format:
Fraud • 978-0-7679-1309-6
Don’t Get Too Comfortable • 978-0-385-51683-9
Half Empty • 978-0-385-53369-0
For more information, please visit www.doubleday.com
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
SETH is the cartoonist behind the long-running comic book series Palookaville. His books include, Wimbledon Green, George Sprott, and It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken. He is the designer for The Complete Peanuts, The Portable Dorothy Parker, and The Collected Doug Wright. His latest book is The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists, and the first of his four books with Lemony Snicket, Who Could That Be at This Hour?, was published in the fall of 2011.
DAVID RAKOFF
November 27, 1964—August 9, 2012