Fragranced Fragments

Poem / Short Story Beginning / Moments

Tilted Sky Edges the Marble


Yesterday changed
when today's sun grew tall.
The waves grew and the sun shone
brilliantly.
When the tide creeped onto low lawns
and the air tasted of yellow daffodils,
she smiled strongly
against the sun.
Lips awaiting a bright wet sky
and the air, too, tasted
of her Earth.

How easy it is
to get caught in a web
that is spun by every soul
except your own.

Tomorrow awaits,
patiently
she carries time

we all do.

**

North Brook
A cold blue flame slips
into the jagged crack
of the Johnson's roof.
As the stalking mouse
scorches his hairless underside,
the stalking bird sings.
Below the Johnsons had been
stoking the firepit for hours,
cooking beans and pork
for the fourth straight meal,
totalling eight meals now,
since the blackout struck.
Forces higher than the
white suits and black ties
compelled this phenomenom
to enter the lives of the
underpopulated, and once
quarantined town of North Brook.
Stu Johnson claimed he saw it.
Claimed he saw the lightning
strike not twice, but three times
'Hitting that same goddamn
tree that those kids had been
climbing and throwin rocks at
for the last thirty years.'
No one believed him at first.
But when they saw the tree,

it was hard to deny that lightning
had in fact struck it, not once,
not twice, but three goddamn times.
Stu was a bit of an eccentric,
having left the town and returned
two years later with different
hats and attitudes than before.
But he was raised in North Brook,
and so was his Daddy, and that
made him a part of the tradition.
Imagine a town that puts on a
Renaissance fair once a year
for three days and the character
that embodies the people who
put on the show and not just visit.
This is what North Brook is like
year round, minus the Renaissance
theme and the tourists. It's North Brook.
Where children are respectful
and therefore respected, where
order evolves with circumstance,
but certain issues, like a crime,
or falling a tree in between roofs
with two inches of give on each side,
are done with such an exactness
that error isn't even considered.
The town is surrounded by
great tall, thin needle like mountains,
and two parallel rivers border the town
like poisonous, domesticated snakes.
All the food is harvested in and between
these rivers, East Brook and West Brook,
and the social order of the town
is indicitive of who provides the most food.
Since the town was built on a slope
and the best views are seen at
higher elevations, one can recognize
the power by whose house is built
on higher grounds. It is said that
at the very top of the hill overlooking
the whole town, lives a Shaman inside
the hollow of a tree for the last 130 years.
His spirit is said to protect North Brook.
Assuming the Shaman isn't just a myth,
he'd be the only fellow alive
to have witnessed the quarantine back in the twenties.
Few souls have glimpsed this Shaman
but many children have claimed to.
One child went so far as to claiming
he spent the night in the hollow drinking a leafy tea mixture
and dreamt time behaving backwards.
It was his dwelling, this tree, that
was struck by ligthning three
god damn times, and when Stu
Johnson saw this, he didn't tell
people what he heard, because
the lightning alone was enough for
people to think he was spreading lies.
He heard a sound. It escaped
the tree like a soul leaving its
flesh, and though it was muffled,
slightly indistinct, Stu was fairly
certain he heard the Shaman.
And he heard him say,
I will return in Nine Days.
With light for Nine Years

**

Of the moments:
Movie:
Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Watching soon:
The Untouchables / Kagemusha / Greenberg
Reading:
Norweigan Wood by Haruki Murakami
Reading soon:
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Tastiest food I've cooked at home in awhile:
Spicy coconut curry with avocado tomato carrot pumpkin onion.Tastiest pizza I've made at Flatbread
this week's carne special: The Bacon Cheeseburger
Red sauce, mozzarella and cheddar, ground beef, bacon, tomatoes, red onion, parmesan and herbs.
Topped with lettuce and pickles, ketchup and mustard.
Tropical Fruit:
Jamaican Liloquoi
Song:
Helplessness Blues
Goal for the week:
Stimulate the routine of everyday life.

A Tilted Sky Edges the Marble