TSM 126

~ qbit 
I've been reading about the French Revolution
and the Terror
how the sound of tumbrel after tumbrel rattled through the streets of Paris
all night
like semi's out on I-70 from Indianapolis St. Louis Denver
diesel smoke
of our oil-black Amazon burning cross country
from truck stop
to truck stop where waitresses
keep vigil
praying the rosary on their
order pads
 
and how the whisk of blades was as casual as you my love
chopping peppers
for our ragout last night then chicken & onions with that same
satisfying thwack
at the end of each stroke and me cheering
you on
the more the merrier I christen this dish
Marie
 
because none of us are ever any more or less than this
 
because you can howl black robes into black flames
like a bellows to the supreme heart
of the news this morning
 
you can write all their names on wings
of a death's head moth
and tape them to the internet
 
because don't kid yourself
one moment your baguette smells like bread
the next it smells warm and sweet
like an iron pike
 
one moment you laugh at yourself in the mirror
and the next
you grimace at your wig of raven feathers
 
this isn't a prayer or excommunication
dear child of God
 
only a reminder to look up
and see what angel wears your face
at Passover
 


The Sunday Muse

28 thoughts on “TSM 126”

  1. I love the waitress pad rosary and the wig of raven feathers. (“Thrice did I lay the kingly wig on him and thrice did he cast it down. Was this the move of a greedy hipster???” –Lord Buckley, Marc Antony’s Funeral Oration) Now I want a wig of raven feathers. But not real feathers, that’d be cruel.

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    1. Thanks! The waitress pad rosary was one of those last minute edits where you go, “Oh… OK!!” Gentle nudge to read last week’s, which I thought met the bar of “not terrible.”

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  2. “and how the whisk of blades was as casual as you my love
    chopping peppers”
    Yes indeed that’s how i felt reading novels about that era

    Happy Sunday, thanks for dropping by my sumie Sunday

    Much💜love

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  3. Wow. This started out for me very calmly and descriptively, with its black oil Amazon, but what dark and powerful wings it grew to fly! I could quote the whole second half back at you, but will just highlight how effective these lines were “..one moment your baguette smells like bread/the next it smells warm and sweet/like a(n) iron pike..’ Just amazing, and it perfectly segues to the blinding flash of the ending. Always find great skill in your work, but this one is inspired.

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  7. I have to say this is a brilliant piece of writing. I agree with others there are too many wonderful phrases to quote.

    Amazon is trying to take over retail businesses. They just built a huge distribution center not far from here.

    I would say you nailed this prompt.

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  10. “I’ve been reading about the French Revolution” and I drifted into thinking of all the times I’ve been to France and remnants and statues still peek their beings out a bit. And then I mist have had a nightmare because I figured I have read nothing of the French Revolution, what did I miss. But then I told myself, “Self, you’ve watched a lot on TV about the French Revolution and have ‘been there months and months of time, week on week.” I smiled, Thank you Robin.
    I thought of you tonight, we watched our recorded last night’s episode of our “Dr. Blake” He bought a new 50’s model car, a Chrysler product.
    ..

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    1. Lol! I think if you’ve seen one guillotine you’ve seen ’em all. I’m still slogging through the chronicals and no great revelation beyond it was all more horrible than even I imagined and I have a pretty good imagination. Glad you thought of me.

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  11. And the horror creeps right into the kitchen and curls around your feet and a chill races up between your shoulder blades. Wow. Bread and pikes and angels with faces that I can only imagine would be deadly at a glance. *shudder*

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  12. I sort of want to highlight and “repaste” well, now it’s a word) every line from the waitress on to the end here. What a powerful, impressive piece this is. I keep going back to the stanza about writing names on moth-wings and taping them to the internet. Not sure why that delights me out of everything here, but it does. And the angel at Passover with our face is a perfectly chilling end.

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    1. Thank you! Glad you like the moth wings, I liked that too. Sort of buried in the middle of everything else, but I was hoping it might catch the readers attention for a moment. (OK, before I start hitting them over the head with the rest of it, LOL!)

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