UNWRITTEN. flighty broad alert

[imgright]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... t_corn.gif[/imgright]I look into her eyes, all full of bitter tears of sadness and disappointment and failure, and say to her in a voice gentle but strong,

"There are no such things as mistakes. Only happy accidents."

The dream begins with dozing in the sun. It's bright and warm and pleasant. There's a lot of other Kimeti here. I don't know any of them, but I can know them very easily.

I select one nearby and look at him. Blue-gray, dappled, bright eyes and a ready smile. I squint my eyes, turn my head to the side... flicker, flicker. There. A vague blueish shape with a narrow yellow core. Stable and sure. Trustworthy.

I look at another, a doe this time. Pale, with wicked horns and golden hair. Look, squint, turn... flicker, flicker. Ocher outermost and thin, with bright red almost right to the edges. Dangerous, that one, might attack you as soon as speak to you.

[imgright]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... s_corn.gif[/imgright]I don't think other people know how to do this.

The buck goes to talk to the doe, inadvisable as that might be. They seem to get on nice, but I know better. It's the madness in her, hot and close to the surface. It slumbers in all of us, buried down however far, cool or mild as it may be. She's wearing a fake smile and she'll play it up, play it up until he's hers and she'll rip his throat out when it suits her.

It's foolish, disgusting. I stand, take my leave of this gathering, find cool shade and rest alone. I bow my head to the pool I now rest beside and drink.

Looking down, I wonder what I'd see if I squinted,  turned my head... flicker, flicker...

[imgright]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... l_corn.gif[/imgright]Above the swamp, above the sky,
We dance and twirl, fam'ly and I,
Spun out to all ends we fly.

While never weary, I soon grow slow,
And stop, and then downward I go
Through sky and swamp, a burning glow.

[imgright]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... d_corn.gif[/imgright]

(Each verse is told progressively quicker.)

A circle of Kimeti stand around the edge of a circle of firelight. One paces between the fire and the circle, head low, eyes glittering, teeth bared.

To the first he asks, "Was it you?"
The first responds, "Not I."

To the next he asks, "Was it you?"
The next responds, "Not I."

To the third he asks, "Was it you?"
The third responds, "Not I."

To the fourth he asks, "Was it you?"
The fourth responds, "Not I."

To the fifth he asks, "Was it you?"
The fifth responds, "Not I."

To the last he asks, "Was it you?"
The last responds, "Not I."

He completes the circuit with no confession and begins again.

To the first he asks again, "Was it you?"
The first responds, "Not I."

To the next he asks again, "Was it you?"
The next responds, "Not I."

To the third he asks again, "Was it you?"
The third responds, "Not I."

To the fourth he asks again, "Was it you?"
The fourth responds, "Not I."

To the fifth he asks again, "Was it you?"
The fifth responds, "Not I."

To the last he asks again, "Was it you?"
The last responds, "Not I."

He completes the circuit with no confession and begins again.

To the first he asks once more, "Was it you?"
The first responds, "Not I."

To the next he asks once more, "Was it you?"
The next responds, "Not I."

To the third he asks once more, "Was it you?"
The third responds, "Not I."

To the fourth he asks once more, "Was it you?"
The fourth responds, "Not I."

[imgright]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... _kitty.gif[/imgright]To the fifth he asks once more, "Was it you?"
The fifth responds, "Not I."

To the last he asks once more, "Was it you?"
The last responds, "Not I."

He completes the circuit with no confession a third time. He snarls and stamps his hooves and tosses his head.

To the circle he asks, "WHO WAS IT?"
The circle responds, "IT WAS ME!"

[imgright]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... s_corn.gif[/imgright]Lips are laid gently upon my brow.

Through this simple touch, I feel the heat of the other's body
Through this simple touch, I feel their regret for our parting
Through this simple touch, I feel the promise of their return
Through this simple touch, I feel their love for me

Through this simple touch, I feel my love for them


These loving lips linger but a moment
then are lightly removed
and are gone

UNWRITTEN. alliteration is hard

The kimeti-shaped piece of the star-dewed night sky stands before me, black and glowing. He has many proud horns upon his head, gnarled in twists and waves. He squints at me with his star-bright eyes, lifts his head and turns it one eye to me.

[imgright]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... s_corn.gif[/imgright]The silence of his judgment stretches on for eons.

Finally, he makes a slight movement, a motion I could swear I imagined - eyes close but an iota more, his head barely dips enough to jostle his beard.

Yes.

In this small sign of acknowledgment, I feel all the voices within the world (and many without) cry out their approval in one resounding, all-confirming affirmative.

Yes.

He is the youngest among his friends, and to prove his worth, he must face a dare. He is nervous, but he is brave, and he wants very badly to prove this to them, so he accepts. The dare seems, at first, simple; "Eat one of these fruits," his peers instruct him. The fruit is a small, red crescent growing off a low, thin shrub.[imgright]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... r_corn.gif[/imgright]

"Be sure to chew it well," one of them says, and they stifle a giggle.

Before he can second-guess himself, he bites one of the fruit off the stem, and bites into it. A bitter, grassy taste fills his mouth, and hard on its heels is a wave of burning fire. He coughs and almost spits it out, and the group bursts into laughter. As he realizes their trick, the fire in his mouth seems to spread to his heart. With furious intensity, he silently stares down his peers, chewing thoroughly through the pain, and their laughter slowly dies. When he swallows, they have all fallen silent. With breath hot and voice cold, he hisses, "Do I need to eat another one?" His peers stammer that no, no, one is enough.

The rain came down, and it kept coming down, for days into weeks, ran down and through and over, out of overflowing stream beds and river banks and through lands and lives and livelihoods, mercilessly. At the end, it deposited all of its flotsam, both alive and dead, in the swamp, before washing out to sea, as all water some day must.[imgright]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... l_corn.gif[/imgright]

For those who lived through it, the event is a raw and gaping wound. As time distances them from it, it will mend a little, and hurt less, but it will never truly fade, leaving a puckered scar on the mind.

For those born after, it is understood to be a tragedy, but it is mostly an impersonal fact, something to measure time by; some years ago, there came a great rain, greater than has been seen since time before time, and a flood washed through the swamp. One year after that, there was regrowth, repairs, and rebirth; and then the year after that, and the one after even that, and all of the years that would ever follow after, full of their myriad joys and sorrows... life moved on.

[imgright]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... uncert.png[/imgright]

The weight of every action and reaction in your life solidifies suddenly somewhere in your core, and it makes you curl up, draws you inwards tighter and tighter until there's nothing left of you at all, except for the horrible pull of it.

UNWRITTEN. she always has what she needs.

On the day you broke in
When your life did begin
Forseeing beauty and trial
You had a mile-wide smile

When you ran as kid
You played games and hid
And just watched for a while
Had that mile-wide smile

When you grew to a beauty
And revealed you were snooty
You kept them trying their wile
To earn your mile-wide smile

And you shot them all down
Gave them naught but a frown
But alone you still smiled
That damn mile-wide smile

And you were quite wicked
Your cruel heart pitted
And it grew quite reviled
Your mile-wide smile

And so they cast you out
But, without a doubt
You thought they'd reconcile
For your mile-wide smile

[imgright]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... e_corn.gif[/imgright]Now you wander alone
Far away, never home
And though age does defile
Still that mile-wide smile

And the wind knocks you flat
Tit-for-tat, tit-for-tat
But still you keep your denial
Wear that mile-wide smile

When you die, I don't doubt
Though they rightly turned you out
On your corpse, likely I'll
See that mile-wide smile