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Open Poetry #37
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When It Had Rained
| Open Poetry #37 |
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When It Had Rained |
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Ratleader
since 2003-01-23
Posts 7026Visiting Earth on a Guest Pass 
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When it had rained, the yellow clay in the road, I mean the place where the gravel didn’t cover and a ring of stunted weeds would grow there spring and fall, up so green so fast then dead with no seed so that the edges, only the edges had stalks but none in the middle, when it had rained and the sickly water too green with the algae and those strange sudden larvae flexing up under the globular rainbows dropped by some car in the dry time; when it had rained, and the sun came then, the yellow clay lay flat and slick while the algae died in the heat as the sun simmered everything like old pudding someone forgot until the stove ruined it, when it had rained, then all that yellow clay tried to hold but it couldn’t cover without enough water to make it fat, to keep it smooth and heavy and the tiny cracks then big cracks all trapezoidal in the blister sun, the cracks would come and come until the palm-flat plates of it were all separate things pulling away, not even wanting the others to touch them and I would watch them in the day curl into scales that didn’t want to touch the road anymore, didn’t want the touch of the spiders and the leggy things that crawled in, didn’t want to touch the world anymore and when it had rained I wondered which yellow scurf of it I was |
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| © Copyright 2006 Ed Ratledge - All Rights Reserved | |||
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suthern
since 1999-07-29
Posts 20723Louisiana |
The fall of rain can be so refreshing, so renewing, so cleansing... but it can also expose too much. I've watched this crack of clay so often... remember crunching the curls with bare feet as a kid *S*... but it took you to find such depth in drying... and paint such vivid emotions using a palette of yellow clay. This is melancholy magnificence, my friend!  |
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StevenS Senior Member
since 2005-09-21
Posts 945L. A. (Lower Alabama) |
Great one Ratleader, I got feeling your the one that always crawls out and stands up on his hind legs. :-) |
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Seymour Tabin Member Empyrean
since 1999-07-07
Posts 31720Tamarac Fla |
Ratleader A Van Goth yellow. Enjoyed the read. |
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Martie
Moderator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-09-21
Posts 28049California |
"and the leggy things that crawled in, didn’t want to touch the world anymore and when it had rained I wondered which one of them I was" Ed...I sure understand the color of this. Well done!! |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
This is changing textures in words! Superbly done! - Owl |
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iliana Member Patricius
since 2003-12-05
Posts 13434USA |
Have to agree with Sy on this one, RatL. Enjoyed. *hugs*....jo |
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Ratleader
since 2003-01-23
Posts 7026Visiting Earth on a Guest Pass |
Some images from my childhood are somehow central....and some, like this one, are hard to understand....but the meaning is there to dig out, it always is. ~~(¸¸¸¸ºº> ~~(¸¸¸¸ºº> ~~(¸¸ ¸¸ºº> ~~~(¸¸ER¸¸ºº> |
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luminosity Senior Member
since 2005-11-18
Posts 813 |
wonderful write.......makes one think deeply...and thirst to drink this one again and again |
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Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354Listening to every heart |
Lately I've noticed you in need of someone's eyes, or another's mind... or perhaps just to borrow their muse. Either God gifted you with all of those pleases... and in turn, you left something good behind. Well done, m'friend. You brought much back to my thoughts... things I hadn't contemplated in decades. [This message has been edited by Sunshine (03-01-2006 08:34 AM).] |
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Ratleader
since 2003-01-23
Posts 7026Visiting Earth on a Guest Pass |
You have good eyes, and I thank you for loaning them here..... Yes, there is much, very much, that I have needed...in poetry and in so many other things that I couldn't make a list. Sad things and angry things, and some that are both, the broth thinned by too little milk of happiness, and what there is, often sour. I'm sorry I seem to have made it so obvious, but I'm glad for your kind ear, and your kinder thoughts. ~~(¸¸¸¸ºº> ~~(¸¸¸¸ºº> ~~(¸¸ ¸¸ºº> ~~~(¸¸ER¸¸ºº> |
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LeeJ Member Patricius
since 2003-06-19
Posts 13296 |
all trapezoidal in the blister sun, the cracks would come and come until the palm-flat plates of it were all separate things pulling away, not even wanting the others to touch them and I would watch them in the day curl into scales that didn’t want to touch the road anymore, this was not only one master of a poem but very heart felt...  |
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The Lady Member Rara Avis
since 2005-12-26
Posts 7634The Southwest |
"until the palm-flat plates of it were all separate things pulling away, not even wanting the others to touch them" Oh my! Beautifully painted picture. |
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icequeen Senior Member
since 2001-12-09
Posts 633FL USA |
This is a piece of art. I used to live on that road. Sometimes I go back there for a walk. I enjoyed this so much, I'll be looking for more of your art.  Caroline He who wants a rose must respect the thorn. |
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