Familiar Path

Nast

Questions do it,
like closed eyes that see everything.
There's a bench in the field of trust.
With no touching of the flowers,
No tasting of the answers.

There's a demon in the donkey trail,
the bridge to there; set on fire,
the firemen to put it out.
Run little girls, run... to the graveyard.

200 foot ravine is enticing enough,
Jump off...
Find self in frigid creek water,
Listen to the whispers of the feet,
about to gnaw fresh, they tell truth.

Go to a place,
far and white,
divide.

Answers don't,
answer,
There's a bend in the bar to level,
and plays a vital part,
in building circles to travel.

To follow,
To all.

pearlmutt

when I read this:

"There's a demon in the donkey trail,
the bridge to there; set on fire,
the firemen to put it out.
Run little girls, run... to the graveyard."

I thought about politics. I'm sorry. I think about politics a lot. Here's why. The donkey, well you know. And the demon, well, you know. But the firemen I would change to "no firemen to put it out" because, well you know, the demon on the other side of the donkey cut the firefighters' money. So I'd say, no firemen.

But that's politics.

Nast

There is a road to get to school from where we lived, we call it the donkey trail, it is gravel and just more a short cut to get from one side of the town to the other. All the kids walked it to get to school. And there are hundreds of stories about girls being raped in those woods. Some friends and I brought about 30 bags of leaves and newspaper under the bridge to get to that road. And I set it on fire.

The firemen of course put it out...

And the trail remains just as freaking scary today as it was then. And the stories, whether true or not, continue to build.

-Nast

pearlmutt

and that is why art is cool,
and so are paths to school.

I really like your explanation of that stanza. It took my brain in a completely different direction. That would be a great short story (I think.)

I would like to play around with an expression often used by teachers -- burnt out teachers -- "Well, they aren't out there setting the world on fire."

"There is a road to get to school from where we lived . . . Some friends and I brought about 30 bags of leaves and newspaper under the bridge to get to that road. And I set it on fire."

pearlmutt

I'm also thinking an allusion to Ray Bradbury, since you were going to school, and Ray is big in school, which is a good, good thing, would work really nicely in your short story that I'm working out in my head right now. And let's see here "There will come soft rains" is a short story in text books, one in which he coined "fingers of fire" (like yours that day) before half the junk food establishments had their way with it. In that one the house has a nervous breakdown after nuclear fall out. There is even one part that reminds me of we will become silhouettes . . . which is a popular little tune in some schools right now. But in Ray's short story there are no firefighters left either.