catapulted into a death roll

a collaboration with Einstein Noodle

elephants stomp approval --
the barrage of words deafening
against this dry, Clorox'd inside.

but the mice know their secret,
fear of silence the deadly vapour
that will fill the void.

whip-whoor-will haunt the early dawn,
their calls carried on smoke,
and a hush is catapulted through evergreen boughs ...

stealth, the crocodile smiled,
such tender morsels to be savoured,
underwater hunger, ripples reverberated --

death roll, drowning toll,
while water flailing' sucking air,
pressing flesh, warm fingers' horror.

and the elephants
retrieve their bones from the graveyard
so they can visit their dead.

Author's Note

Reviews

[Einstein Noodle]

thank you Ms. Goode for joining me in this collab. I love all the fine tuning you have done ..it's a keeper in my heart! ;)

and i thank all of you who have already left your impressions upon reading ..and those in the future as well ... :)
E.

[Lyn Anderson]

Thank you for making it easy -- there wasn't much fine tuning necessary, as your words flow effortlessly. I might add most the "favourited" lines are yours, my friend, I just tied them up with a bow. A humble gift wrapper am I. :)

[Einstein Noodle]

well ...you can tie me up anytime :) it was very smooth going wasn't it!? of course i will not count this one as my one-a-day from you ..;)

[Lydia Shutter]

Ah, can we Clorox away what is inside our brains? Can we whitewash what we hear on the news? If only we could. The circle of life goes on and we never know for sure what will happen next. The only consolation is that it WILL go on. KL and E, the words you wrote here are seamless. Obviously you are in sync. I enjoyed this one. Lydi**

[Lyn Anderson]

Thanks. I think most of the favourite lines are Einstein Noodle's. He has a lot of clever ideas, I just string them together and edit.:)

[Pryde Foltz]

What lies beneath, hey? No 'stomping around' will keep you safe from it. Great collab, you two:)

[Lyn Anderson]

Thank you. Life is always interesting when two minds meet.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

this reminded me a bit of what happened to that poor little guy at Disney's Sea
World...

nature just bides its time...content, patient...and then ambushes us.

love the whip-poor-will line...

this sounds as one voice...and really taps into our imagination...i also really like the "Clorox'd inside"---

we often have that white elephant that burdens us...and yet we work to clear all that out...so that we won't eat our own hearts and soul away...easy to erode if we are not careful.

really good job, guys.

j.

[Lyn Anderson]

Thank you for your very considered review. Yes, the boy did cross my mind - and exactly, nature eventually gets its way.

[Papaya]

This would make a great little illustrated children's book.
Not your typical sort of children's book obviously. :)

Great to see you guys blend your voices.

As you know, I'm lousy at interpreting things that are in my own head let alone someone else's but I know elephants wander off to die alone (I think) so I wonder if this has to do with the robbing of elephants of their tusks.

[Lyn Anderson]

It did turn out to have a wild environmental theme. Einstein started it. I couldn't help myself. Now, he wasn't sure about the title, but I think with all the nature references and the dire straits of many animal species, it fit.

[Papaya]

Loved all the nature references. :)