THE FOG
PART ONE
Section 7
Sporting a terrific hairstyle, on a branch
sat a bobolink.
It looked tired and thirsty and not an eye
did blink.
"What ails thee, birdie dear, why do you
look so sad?"
At my question it looked at me as if I were
mad.
Suddenly, it craned its neck, as it heard a
moan.
Was it a dog whimpering and hunting for a
bone?
“First you destroy us and then you kill your
own.”
Indignant was the tenor and admonishing the
tone.
I started running as though I were Forrest
Gump.
Then, utterly exhausted, hunkered down on a
stump.
“These voices are voices of people dead and
gone.
Sometimes you can hear them from night to
dawn,”
Said the colourful bobolink with utter
sadness filled.
“In the jungle we still see glimpses of the
couple killed.
They were so much in love but you throttled
their love.
Pray, tell me, what more devious plans
have you now?”
What evil looks I had from the trees old and
young.
The jungle vibrated with cries of cicadas
high strung.
A frightened hare scurried forth from the
thicket,
Lustily chirped and cheered on by a robust
cricket.
Slipping and tripping, I ran from the jungle,
face askew.
Quaking at the thought of more dangers
chasing me anew.
In my tracks I stopped dead, seeing a wicked scene,
In my tracks I stopped dead, seeing a wicked scene,
Some scruffy cats cruelly pestered by a dog
mean.
The blue eyed girl was being dragged by
two men brawny.
Aghast stood a bonny hare and a couple of
hens scrawny.
“Can no one help me?” the blue eyed beauty
cried in vain.
“You will have to pay for your sin,” was
their refrain.
They dragged the crying girl into the
thick shrubbery.
Next to a bush of mulberry was a man
with lips rubbery.
A cat suddenly jumped on my shoulder. I was
petrified.
I tried to shake it off, but it was bent on a
nocturnal ride.
“Help, help,” the blue eyed beauty screamed
again.
Hearing the screams, the cat jumped down in
pain.
It was silhouetted in the lunar light for a
long time,
Then scampered off, mewing away the sorry
clime.
With mournful looks my way, something it
tried to say.
I could simply not understand what it
tried to convey.
I stared on and on, till her tail
became just a speck,
Screaming loudly when a mosquito bit me on
the neck.
Fog and Sunrise -- Roos Schuring
Forrest Gump was named after his ancestor Nathan Bedford Forrest, who had been a successful slave trader before the Civil War, rose from private to Confederate lieutenant general without any prior military experience, and allegedly became the 2nd grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan after the war ended. Gump’s mother claimed she intended his name to be a reminder that "sometimes we all do things that, well, just don't make no sense". In addition to having a low IQ (though in the novel he was portrayed as an idiot savant) he was born with a crooked spine and forced to wear braces. One day a group of bullies was throwing rocks at him and he ran away; as he struggled to run, his leg braces broke apart, and he discovered he could run incredibly fast, leading to a football scholarship. From that point, throughout his life he participated in many of the significant events of the 1960s and 1970s and in the process become rich. In 1966 Winston Groom, whose “Conversations with the Enemy” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1984, published “Forrest Gump” in 1986. The novel sold some 30,000 copies, but the novel received little attention until Robert Zemeckis adapted the book’s first 11 chapters and ending as a movie in 1994. It was the top-grossing film in North America that year, earning over $677 million worldwide, making it the 4th-highest grossing film to that date. It won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing. It was also nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards, winning three of them (Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, Best Director – Motion Picture, and Best Motion Picture – Drama). Screenwriter Eric Roth changed Gump’s character considerably, making him warmer and less cynical; Groom admitted that Roth took off his “rough edges.” Film critic Roger Ebert wrote, "I've never met anyone like Forrest Gump in a movie before, and for that matter I've never seen a movie quite like 'Forrest Gump.' Any attempt to describe him will risk making the movie seem more conventional than it is, but let me try. It's a comedy, I guess. Or maybe a drama. Or a dream. The screenplay by Eric Roth has the complexity of modern fiction...The performance is a breathtaking balancing act between comedy and sadness, in a story rich in big laughs and quiet truths...What a magical movie.” The film’s success also revived the novel’s fortunes, leading to 1.7 million copies being sold worldwide. Groom was paid $350,000 for the screenplay rights and was contracted for a 3% share of the film's net profits. But, although the movie only cost $55 million to make, the high fees charged by distributors and exhibitors led to accounting losses of $62 million, so Groom was never paid. By contrast, the movie’s star Tom Hanks contracted for a percentage of the film's gross receipts instead of a salary, and he and Zemeckis each received $40 million for their work. However, Groom was compensated with a seven-figure contract with Paramount for film rights to the novels’ sequel, “Gump & Co,” which he published in 1996 to capitalize on the movie’s success. On the first page of the sequel Gump tells readers "Don't never let nobody make a movie of your life's story," though "whether they get it right or wrong, it doesn't matter.” Roth again wrote the screenplay in 2001, but the movie was never made.
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