Still No Balls of Fire

[rejectomorph]

Cerulean evening was without trace of clouds and, though the moon was bright, and the air brisk, I expected my best chance yet to see a Taurid fireball (I've become obsessed with them!) But slowly the clouds regathered, until they crowded all the horizons, leaving only a broad reveal of starlit sky directly above. Pleasant though it was to see, and even more the cloud-caught moonlight which made of the landscape a dim and suggestive mystery, it was not what I wanted. It was like being stuck in a silent, domed church with vague angels of paint looking down, knowing I would rather be at the carnival with the dissolute, reveling crowd, watching the sinister tattooed man lick flames and leer.



Sunday Verse

Paternoster

by Jacques Prevert


Our father who art in heaven
Stay there
And we'll stay on earth
Where nearly everything is lovely
With its mysteries
Of Paris and New York
(Worth as much as the Trinity)
With its Great Wall of China
And its sticky Brighton Rock
Its river at Morlaix
And its canal at Ourcq
Its Seven Seas
And its two fountains in the Tuileries
Earth with all its saints and sinners
Earth with all its marvels
Spread before us
Offered freely
Earth with all its miseries
Which are legion
With its legionnaires and mercenaries
Its torturers and rulers
Men with riches and men in ditches
Earth with its seasons and years
Its pretty virgins and old tarts
With its straw pallets rotting in its steel cannons

Comments

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

what an astounding poem! i like it. (must look it up in french.)

i must see a taurid fireball. are these supposed to be visible to the naked eye?

[rejectomorph]

Fireballs can be very bright, but they arrive less frequently than ordinary meteors. This year's Taurids were expected to be more numerous than usual. The peak was supposed to be between November 5th and November 12th, so the chances of seeing one now are slight. I missed the unexpected Halloween display.

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

wow, thanks for the link! those are dramatic!

[waning-estrogen.livejournal.com]

oh, I really like this one, too.

good call.