Friday, November 10, 2006
panning for gold
Wow, it’s Friday already and I have not posted anything here since Monday. I take that as evidence of a sudden burst of productivity, at home and at the office. The details of my accomplishments are not just meaningless to anyone but myself, they are too petty to be described - but today is a day off work and I get to relax for a while with the family and even hang out with the amazing Z-meister.
HOWEVER: I don’t think I’d be truly focused on the here-and-now if I didn’t take care of a two-birds-one-stone thing here: I want to get a bit of metered writing off my mind, and I want to put something new on this blog, something more like creative writing than that “what I did on my Halloween vacation” dealie I’ve got downstairs. The following story is true. Only the pretentious phrasing has been changed to embarrass the participants.
High above me cliffs aspired
roasted by a baking sun
that blazed upon me as I stood
as far into the churning current
I could dare myself to wade
Feet dug into sandy gravel
chilly river to my kneecaps
flashing silver blue transparent
swirling in my gravelpan
searing sun on rushing snowmelt
flecks of pyrite, drops of gold
mind washed clean by rocking waters
open for discovery
From behind me came the native
flash of olive rippleslithered
shocked the breath up from my belly
Snake shot clean between my hamstrings
big, substantial, flickerswimming
proudly furled upon the surface
barely felt myself bisected
snake had bigger fish to fry
and swam ahead for deeper waters
left me panning tenuously
in his stream.
Good times, people. That incident happened when I was 14 or so, up in the coastal mountains, and it totally made up for my disappointment at the horehound candy I’d bought at the pioneer store earlier that day. Lesson learned: as far as horehound goes, the missing “w” makes a difference. Tell the president. And with that, have a good weekend - I’m out of here.
