or 2.28b (my computer died)
Presageful, have I gazed upon the bars,
To watch that fluttering stranger !
"Frost at Midnight"
-Sammy T. Coleridge
The embers of the fire guttered and flashed. Carbon chains severed and released heat and light and flame. The ranch hand sat, engrossed with the destroyer of his own making. The fire was dying. He saw a bit of ash lift free from the log and wave in the updraft. The spent wood hung on, hoping to be of some use still, but its power was gone. It lifted free and floated away.
Cows lowed in the near distance. He shifted off of his gun, settling to a more comfortable position.
He watched for more ash, fascinated.
Then he saw it: a pinpoint of fire which instantly widened into a circle and just as quickly closed back up again. From that spot lightly lifted up a layer of ash: fine and papery. It floated away, and again, the circle of fire, severing the dead from the dying.
The fire grew cold, and he sat watching.
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This actually happens when a fire is dying. If Samuel Coleridge was more OBSERVANT then he would have seen it. As is, I'm better in every way. Except I haven't written lines that have entered the social consciousness. GIVE ME TIME, GORAMMIT!
ReplyDelete"Twas I who killed the Albatross."
"Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink."
He wins.
Hehehe... you have time. Probably.
ReplyDeleteDoes it help to know that... no, it doesn't.
You know, everyone rewrites the "Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink" to "Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink."
So... maybe even he didn't get it completely right all the time.
Well, anyways. I'm trying my best here, but I write kinda funky lines. I should take the path of Emerson and just go to a pond for a while. He seemed to write iconic (if boring) stuff.
ReplyDeleteOkay, maybe not boring? But it was dry as all get out. And disorganized.
ReplyDeleteFunny how dry it was when he had a whole lake right there... But really, what else do you THINK would happen if you went out into the wilderness with nothing but pen and paper and necessities? Wouldn't YOU get bored, missing the sound of your own voice? Wouldn't YOU just write random disorganized stuff because you promised your mother two thousand lines and you want to go back home?
ReplyDeleteNo. But thanks anyway.
ReplyDelete