THE FOG
PART ONE
Section 9
In the forest deep, at every corner lurked
disaster.
With every rustle of leaf my heart beat
faster.
The trees stood erect, mimicking exclamation
marks.
The jungle resonated with hoots and brazen
barks.
A monolith of a man appeared, hand on holster.
Then came another man carrying a grotesque
bolster,
Followed by a scoundrel stinking like
an absolute skunk,
Snatching the bolster, hurling it next to a
tree trunk.
Towards her they headed, determination in
their stride.
A sniggering voice echoed, “Come be my
bride.”
Soon, loud guffaws rent the wilderness wide
As they pulled her arms and to a tree tightly
tied.
Her cries rent the air as the girl screamed
for help.
The jungle fell silent, not a pup in sympathy
did yelp.
The boy suddenly came and threw himself on
the girl.
The monolith picked the bolster and at him
did hurl.
Throwing away the bolster, he
cradled her head.
The bunch of villains growled and glowered,
seeing red.
Brutally they picked her up and behind a bush
dumped.
He tried to hoist her to her feet, in his
arms she slumped.
The boy flinched, as the monolith at him
hurled a blow.
Although he tried to back off, alas, he
proved too slow.
With more punches they viciously pounced at
him.
He yelled in pain, chances of escape there
were slim.
Fog Lifting -- Maurice Shapiro
A bolster is either a long pillow or cushion, or a structural part designed to provide support or eliminate friction. The word is related to the Old English word for "bag" (belg). The Belgae were a Celtic tribe in Britain; their name was related to a Proto-Celtic root *belg- ("to swell, especially with anger or battle fury"), derived ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhelgh- ("to swell, bulge, billow"). The word may have been associated with the Fir Bolg ("men of bags"): the "Lebor Gabála Érenn" (The Book of the Taking of Ireland), an 11th-century compilation of Irish poems and prose narratives, claim that the Muintir Nemid (the people of Nemed ["privileged" of "holy" in Old Irish] had settled in various parts of Europe after abandoning Ireland; those who went to Greece were enslaved by the Greeks and forced to carry bags of soil and thus acquired the name Fir Bolg; after 230 years they left Greece (at the same time as the Exodus of Jews from Egypt) and returned to an uninhabited Ireland. They ruled for 37 years but were conquered by the
ReplyDeleteTuath Dé ("tribe of the gods), the descendants of the Muintir Nemid who had fled "into the north of the world." The defeated Fir Bolg were either exiled or allowed to retain Connacht in the wetern part of the island, while the Tuatha Dé Danann (people of the goddess Danu) became the main gods of the Irish. Christian missionaries described them as fallen angels and later devolved into the Aos Sí (fairies") of later folklore.