"replaced with a bullet casing, much too large"

"The enormous remaining boa constrictor will die in its cage.  I think it leans its ugly head against the wire and has a heartrending air such as you see only in the dying.  I thought it must be thirsty and carefully poured water on its mouth and head, but it merely stared at me from the depths of a loneliness that had little connection left with earthly things.  So we decided to release the boa.  Walter and I shook it out of the cage, because it did not want to budge.  The women watched from a safe distance, not looking happy.  The snake crawled right back into its enclosure, yet when I check later, it was gone, and there was a clear trail in the sand leading toward the jungle.  At night the place where the snake had disappeared was thronged with twinkling fireflies, and overhead a clear, starry night sky.  Andres, our mathematician, was playing chess with his girlfriend, losing most of the games, but he accepted that with mathematical decorum.  A white pawn is missing, and has been replaced with a bullet casing, much too large, which usually becomes the object of attacks early in the game.  For the first time in my life mosquitoes are leaving me completely indifferent, not that I have accepted the superior power of nature.  It is more of a dispassionate scorn with which I am leaving my skin and blood undefended.  God grant us one good day, a single one, amen."

-- Werner Herzog, The Conquest of the Useless