The Traitor
On the sixth year's
first morning,
first morning,
Annika
left the revolution.
She'd lost the means
She'd lost the means
to pay again the
too salty-sticky
stains' red blackmail;
music stopped playing
music stopped playing
in the Enemy's screams,
Commander-cursed snow
blessed her
with blankets for the dead.
Overnight
with blankets for the dead.
Overnight
she became a traitor
for glowworms,
the bourgeois bloom
the bourgeois bloom
of marigolds,
the bark-wag
of dogs.
~July 2013
55 choruses of La Marseillaise for the g-man
Process notes: This was taken from yet another dream, and bears no relationship to the French Revolution, the October Revolution, John Lennon's Revolution #9, or any specific historical event.
Glowworm, by Sergey Solomko,
Public Domain, via wikipaintings.org
smiles...liberty leading the people...one of the pieces of art we teach our students....i'd take glow worms over burying the dead, a break from the fighting...there comes a point that it becomes a bit much...
ReplyDeletewhat are you eating before bed at night?
smiles.
Glowworms?
DeleteMoonbat....
ReplyDeleteIt will all become clear to you in the near future.
At that time you will realize that you are just as normal as, as say,
well I can't think of anyone, but you are very cool so you don't have
to be normal!!
Loved your Morpheus 55
Thanks for playing....Still
You are one of my Fave's
Have a Kick Ass Week End
( Children run away from home to join the Circus every day, I'll be waiting)
Phew, I feel much better now. :P
DeleteWow - I want to borrow your brain and have some of your dreams, hedgewitch! Wonderful to be back reading your writing. :)
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely loved: the bourgeois bloom
of marigolds
the bark-wag
of dogs.
My brain would be fun to borrow, but you wouldn't want to live here. ;_) Thanks, Talon--loved your 55.
DeleteI am a bit tired to comment on this but to say that it's terrific. Agree with Brian's question (and is it seeded?)
ReplyDeleteI love the whole things, but I guess what sticks with me - the sticky-sweet red blackmail, the commander-cursed snow serving as blankets for the dead -- or blessing - this is actually my favorite parts - as one thinks of the blood stained snow and the snow blanketing the dead and then the use of the word blessed, which to me brings up the french blesse (I can't put accent in) but meaning wounded - that is just magnificent as the blessed works on the plain old English level as this terrible irony --
I felt that the glowworms should maybe have comma rather than period (sorry!) because I liked thinking of the bourgeois bloom of marigolds modifying them - here I come up with Pratchett - I somehow think of glowworms feeding off dead meat in mines - he uses it that way, I don't know if it's a legend or not - but this idea of the marigolds for the bourgeois - is it their gold? so interesting. And the bark --I don't know why that's so effective except that somehow we are thinking botanically at that point. Or I was -
Anyway, really too tired to think about Annika as a name but certainly it has different associations - very cool. (I'm not on back medication so have no excuses for incoherence.) k.
I'm sorry for all the typonese--I really am tired. I hope you can read between the mistakes. k.
DeleteI wouldn't worry, k, you always make at least as much sense as I do. I don't ask for more. ;_) That actually *is* a comma--kinda hard to tell in this font, especially if your eyes are tired, or your brain. I've bought a Pratchett book in your honor at the used book store--Lords and Ladies--and someday I may even read it. AFA your reading of the poem--you picked out all the things I also like, but hadn't thought of blesse--my six years of childhood French may be working at a deeper level than I know. ;_) The glowworms were added as an afterthought to the marigolds, really brought on by that old Russian picture I found, so they were not meant to be sinister, but I never mind a little grue. Thanks for reading, as always.
DeleteI knew I shouldn't trust myself to comment yesterday. I wasn't only tired, but was using my laptop that I do not travel with, so the settings somehow get changed (I think my husband uses when I am away), so the fonts are all smaller than I need, and I realize that I not only missed the comma but didn't read the dog-wag properly, so I interpreted the whole last stanza in some weird way based on near-sightedness. It is quite a bit more compelling read as written! I love the idea of getting sick of the revolution, and going for all those good old bourgeois, homey and somehow friendly pleasures of dog wag and marigold--also, I can see now the double sense of commander-cursed - I was thinking of the wounded staining it, but of course, the commanders probably also curse it. Anyway, like a lot. (Lords and Ladies is by the way a couple of books into one of the series--the one about witches. The beginning one in that series is Wyrd Sisters, then Witches Abroad. Pratchett's books are rather stand alone in that you don't have to know the earlier events of other books, though the characters have a certain resonance if you read them in order because they really do "grow up" based on what they go through in the prior books. Lords and Ladies has some elements you might like based on your interests but if you could read Wyrd Sisters first, it may make more sense. Witches Abroad is funny but not at all necessary to read first.)
DeleteFinally - not to take your time - but looking at Delacroix couldn't help thinking of my own version -- you may remember - used last year at dVerse. http://dversepoets.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/img_3163.jpg
Oddly, the real one feels now like it has something wrong. k.
Laughed so hard at the elephant Liberty that I choked (harmlessly) on my coffee. (I know I've seen it before, but with my memory each day is a new beginning.) I don't know what I was expecting, but not that! ;_)Thanks for the tips about Pratchett's series--I will look for Wyrd Sisters on Kindle--that's getting to be the only way my eyes don't complain. (I was reading the label on our projected dinner tonight and thought it said Woolen Fryer, instead of Whole Fryer. These things are disturbing. ;_) )
DeleteShe was "too tired" to comment. (laughing)
DeleteI know. Some people couldn't concentrate enough to leave a comment like that on their best day. Think what she could say if she were well-rested. ;_)
DeleteThat's quite a dream. Beautifully enigmatic words.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this and the dream quality just shines through.
ReplyDeleteGlow worms or lightning bugs...this was terrific.
ReplyDeleteI'm at:
http://rnsane.blogspot.in/2013/07/lifesavers-friday-flash-55-july-19-2013.html
I am just going to confess that i don't understand it, really, but i still enjoyed it because the images and the language are so original and Hedge-y.
ReplyDeleteI will say that it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind, or her loyalties.
Aren't dreams fab!? We think we know the direction they are going and BOOM
ReplyDeletethey go in another! Great share thanks!
Shows the importance of POV. And of eating glowworms before bed! :o)
ReplyDeleteThe bark-wag of dogs! How perfect is that, and I feel happy for your heroine, and her choice to leave the fray.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kerry. Good to see you and hope things at work are not too crazy.
Delete...and it moves along, dreamlike, full of imagery, not relying on comprehension. The image of snow being a blanket for the dead is lovely - It makes everything appear clean and peaceful (kind of like a glowworm)
ReplyDeleteYou have amazing dreams. This poem would make a great story or novel - I love the name Annika......and that she left the revolution. Makes me want the story!
ReplyDeleteWow! That is some dream. Very vivid images.
ReplyDeleteOvernight
ReplyDeleteshe became a traitor
for glow-worms,
the bourgeois bloom
of marigolds,
the bark-wag
of dogs.
this section really seared me lively and sharp:
gave me that hit of surrealist
slice and dice
that I love
so much
I think you beat the shit
out of that miserable sing song movie
my chick watches twice a week!
and in a fraction of the time
and you didn't have to shave your head either . . .
unless you did?!
all the best hedge
Well, not recently. But I could. Thanks Arron.
Delete