Year after year she wasted away
Consuming notebook after notebook with what
Husband and son imagined contagious nonsense—
Having kept their distance, it made sense after
She departed to chuck the lot in the fireplace.
NB: Sadly enough, a true story which transpired in a neighboring village many years ago; only the roles of the spouses have been exchanged to make it and the title more “poetic”.
In several uncomfortable ways this little parable could be applied to all of us -- or would "should be" fit the occasion even more accurately?
ReplyDeleteRight on, Tom! If the parable fits, wear it--the occasion certainly demands that we do.
ReplyDeleteTo me it seems slightly more appropriate that the writing was burned rather than buried. I think its best for the words to go back into the sky.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you’re right, Kevin, but it doesn’t make less appalling the act of destroying something someone has created or collected—which reminds me: More than 30 years ago, the village photographer moved to Athens with his family in search of a better life; he sold his shop--along with all his negatives--to the person who still has the shop here. You know what this dodo did? He destroyed everything the previous photographer had ever shot, wiping out one man's personal 25-year-old visual history of the area in the process.
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