Sunday, February 17, 2013

The Burrow

Greening by Teodoro S Gruhl 








The Burrow


"Quickly!" she calls in that crystal
pealed voice -"Hurry!" and he, little
brother drops his socks in
the grass and follows his confident
sibling, scurries, wriggles on naked belly into
the burrow, mind squinched shut against
what he knows is only an imaginary filthy-root-
munching-troll hiding, sneering in subterranean soil,
only an imaginary door into which he will be pulled

He must have cried out or moaned, as small
snakes or large plump blood-sucking slimed
worms slithered against his soft belly, reaching
for him with hungry suckers from the soil beneath

He must have cried out, for his sister hissed "Sshh!"
in that silent would-be- grave as her bare foot grazed
his cheek at her sudden stop, 

as she in church-struck wonder whispers
"There."

in the candlelight she lit from who knows where,
who knows how, there they were
as she had promised, two tiny cubs nestled one 

into the other, new fur, soft as the just held-dawn 
with a surging lack of all fear he reaches 
his now steady pointer-finger and touches -

They, his sister and he, sit
on bare haunches, transfixed faces
bathed in shimmered flickered light,
as the cubs sensing the same majesty
first one, then the other,

opened new eyes
and for an instant that
will survive the boy all his years
all eyes lock in liquid
pools of fathomless eternal depth

They, these four, in this springtime birth-burrow
are as one set of undifferentiated newlings,
hidden from all in the cool, calm velvet safety of the earth
as the World dressed in shame, artifice, aggression and disguise
rushes above them 








8 comments:

  1. Enjoyed this full of adventure and excitement as you carry the reader to his destination. Very good write

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    Replies
    1. Removed a duplicate comment - bargain? or burden? all n the eye of beholder - Thanks Stan

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  3. There are many a wondrous story teller in the Wordler's mists! Wow!!
    One can only hope that Mama stays away long enough for the children to reach safety.

    I haven't penned my story verse yet...Meant also to say I liked the title of your other verse too.

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  4. Wowzers, I was holding my breath as those four small creatures looked at each other, hoping Mama Bear wouldnt come back too soon. A memory to last a lifetime and beautifully written.

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  5. Thank you for your magical tale, Pearl. Well spun!

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