Metronome





METRONOME

On the sticky clay of my uncertainty, in pale flickering moonlight, I pondered the fecund shoreline beneath my feet.

At the pond, half-a-mile across was not too far to swim because I seemed to be going toward something. Something I wanted. Yes, the love impulse had frequently revealed itself in terms of conflict; but this was an old sound, an austere, steady element. A heartbeat.

Yes, I’d been no angel and so what . . .

Yes, tiny fireflies emerged from the murky mist. Yes, the stink of rotting vegetation made me sick. Yes, I lay for hours pondering the treetops, the matriarchal clouds, the moon. In the tender gray, I swim undisturbed, my soul collecting melancholy trophies, my imagination unimpeded.

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This bit of moist prosery was prompted by the line "In the tender gray, I swim undisturbed," by Celia Dropkin, from her poem Sullivan County

And of course, I was fed the prompt by those tender gray folks over at DVerse Poets.

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©2022 Christopher Reilley 

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Comments

  1. For this person, tender gray feels like palpable relief in the middle of the "colorful" rest surrounding it. I know it is nit-picking but the word in the quote is "swim" and you have "swam."

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  2. Immersed in the primal seas...

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  3. I really enjoyed the train of thought. Especially love the addition of "my soul collecting melancholy trophies". Nice!

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  4. I also liked "my soul collecting melancholy trophies" in this "moist" stream of consciousness--or awareness.

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  5. I love the mood of this... very moody with all those slick water elements.

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  6. Loved the atmosphere created with this :)

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