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24 de Mayo, 2007
blackbird gasoline
Categorized under Stories | Tags:
IT IS A MOMENT DRENCHED in foreshadowing. I feel it immediately upon me, as if the wind has quieted down for this very reason. The sun is floating behind my back, staring as if lost in thought.
Overhead, the hot blue is sliced into odd rectangles of sky. Telephone wires cutting black gaps across an otherwise bright scene. The lawnmower is stalled, the air still stinks of gas.
Just as I reach underneath the mower—just as I prepare to grab the old mower's curled orange lip and gaze into its greasy, grassy mouth of shadow—a large black bird flutters over a wire overhead.
I see the shadow flutter across the neon grass.
I stop.
Slowly, I turn my head around. It is a perfect moment. Like a postcard hoarded by an eight year old for too many years. Gauzy silhouette, light bleeding over the bird like a Godard sun. Sleek shoulders cut out shape black, diamond fire flames spiking out around an unclosed eye.
Another bird finds the wire crossing parallel. Two birds now. They both wait for me to reach under the mower.
I look down to the brick-red deck of the mower with the scabby yellow sticker that spells out DANGER and below it, an indecipherable symbol. A crunched up grease form, flecked and stippled by the sun-crisped fragments of a thousand miles of chopped grass stalks. The birds do not move.
I tense my fingers and lift the mower.
The single crazed tooth of the machine is nicked and beaten and still. Her edges lined thick with a deep green shadow. A wad of green matter is stuffed between the blade and chute on the side. I need to pull it free.
The black bird shifts on the wire overhead.
I lower the mower and look behind me. And smile.
To hell with it, I say, putting down the mower's edge. I'm going to get a stick to move that chunk.
I walk to the garden to find a stick. There is one shoved into the earth behind my habaneros. Where the drain is...where we usually see snakes.
I laugh to myself. Imagine if I got bit by a snake because I tried to dodge my fate of losing my hand to the mower?
I stand over the dry soil. The stake. I look over at the birds on the wire. They do not move. I look back to the crack along the wall, where the snakes may be waiting.
I reach down...but do not reach close yet. Laugh again to myself. This is stupid.
I reach for the stick. I grab the stick.
I go back to the mower and use the stick to free the blade of grass.
The mower runs exceptionally well for the rest of the time, although it almost stalls out once more.
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Comentarios (14)
ilyka dijo:
Praise the blackbirds. I read this horrified that at any moment you were going to lose a hand and the post would end, "So that is why I am taking a little blog break while we wait for a prosthesis to be fitted."
Palabras por ilyka spat forth on el 24 de Mayo, 2007 at 04:45 PM
nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez dijo:
yes...it sort of leads there! because it was really odd. the moment felt like it. charged with danger. i was afraid for five minutes to touch anything...that's how it felt. it was not a familiar feeling. i loved it. like a big eye was moving over me, an eye that saw fate. like there was an inescapable moment about to unfold...and yet—
Palabras por nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez spat forth on el 24 de Mayo, 2007 at 06:38 PM
Tom/DKRF/whatever dijo:
Creepy! Together we will make the American man so terrified of his lawnmower that the continent will revert to prairie.
Palabras por Tom/DKRF/whatever spat forth on el 24 de Mayo, 2007 at 06:43 PM
nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez dijo:
i realized while editing it that it was a lawnmower story, too, and at that point, i almost titled the post "this is not a metaphor," but of course, that would have told everyone that it was a metaphor, but in a rather clever yet obvious way so i chose to go with the current title so that nobody would actually know it was a metaphor. which it is not.
Palabras por nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez spat forth on el 24 de Mayo, 2007 at 06:58 PM
Rafael dijo:
Beautiful stuff, but I can imagine what the birds where really thinking.
Bird 1:"Hey Larry! Come here, some moron is going to put his hand inside a lawnmower!"
Bird 2:"Nah, you mean under it? No way, he not going to do it."
Bird 1:"Bet ya 20 he will!"
Bird 2:"No way, this chump looks sorta smart, but just in case I'll bring my camera."
A few minutes pass and Nez fetches the stick....
Bird 1:"Forget the camera Larry, didn't do it. Can I pay you next Tuesday?"
Palabras por Rafael spat forth on el 24 de Mayo, 2007 at 06:59 PM
nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez dijo:
that sounds like my street, all right. i knew those damn birds were influencing the social dialogue.
Palabras por nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez spat forth on el 24 de Mayo, 2007 at 07:03 PM
Tom dijo:
"i almost titled the post "this is not a metaphor," but of course, that would have told everyone that it was a metaphor, but in a rather clever yet obvious way so i chose to go with the current title so that nobody would actually know it was a metaphor. which it is not."
;-) You sure that's not just the weed talking? Because that's what it does to me!
Palabras por Tom spat forth on el 24 de Mayo, 2007 at 07:45 PM
nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez dijo:
well, to tell you the truth, i think YOU are the weed talking.
Palabras por nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez spat forth on el 24 de Mayo, 2007 at 07:49 PM
Tom dijo:
lol
Palabras por Tom spat forth on el 24 de Mayo, 2007 at 07:56 PM
nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez dijo:
odd, i don't usually type laugh abbreviations. i must be realllly stoned.
Palabras por nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez spat forth on el 24 de Mayo, 2007 at 08:01 PM
sir jorge dijo:
this painted a great little picture in my head
Palabras por sir jorge spat forth on el 24 de Mayo, 2007 at 08:31 PM
sly civilian dijo:
i love writing that can dive into tension like that. it's one thing to just hit your reader, quite another to draw them in quickly and accelerate them along with the suspense.
Palabras por sly civilian spat forth on el 24 de Mayo, 2007 at 09:16 PM
Changeseeker dijo:
I loved the addition of the snake place. This is stunning writing.
Palabras por Changeseeker spat forth on el 25 de Mayo, 2007 at 06:11 AM
nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez dijo:
thank you, changeseeker, sly civilian, and sir jorge, todas! i do appreciate your feedback.
Palabras por nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez spat forth on el 25 de Mayo, 2007 at 07:41 AM