I almost thought this was going to be another hissy-fit in the making (it's been a long day), and WAS going to put it off till sleep had happened, but two of the words stared me in the eye almost immediately and said, 'LOOK. WRITE.' (I didn't expect 'WRITE' to suddenly veer off into the land of macabre fairy tales and myth, but apparently that's what the brain wanted to do, go figure. Hans Christian Anderson's Red Shoes, anyone?)
The title's an allusion to The Golden Bough, by Sir James G. Frazer. The entire book is a comparative study of mythology and religion, more or less, and more about it can be found here since Wikipedia does it better and my brain is too shot to be much more help than saying 'Ngh' at the moment:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Bough
The other thing I looked up was the origins of Thor's hammer, and it had some details I didn't know and got intrigued by, especially why it had to be wielded one-handed - blood dripped into the eyes of its crafter:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mj%C3%B6lnir
SIR JAMES FRAZER EDITING THE DICTIONARY OF MYTHOLOGY
Ballet slipper (n.)
between worlds bowl of sky between the recurve bow arches
of your feet
hollow box of your pointe shoes lightning-rod the echoing earth
vibrate! phalanges metatarsals tarsals sing
electric
your stretched hand touches heaven brushes hell
star fire on your palm inferno on your fingertips
dance
down to Valhalla to the sunless
caverns of Xanadu
Karen feet stained red as your shoes
Hammer (n. / v.)
blood made you flawed blood dripping into eyes eyes that forged you
to wield you is to wield you one-handed ripping asunder
half of you from the root your other half a flapping puppet
a caricature Punch and Judy grimace-smile
iron in the blood lightning arcing through red cells blood
earth blood
sparking through your veins Valhalla’s thunder rising through rubble
and rock you are battle red as the stumps of your ankles
where your shoes were cut off eyes sewn shut
your feet dancing triumphant before you
you belong to Thor you belong to no man
you belong to the gods
5 comments:
Meanings, meaning galore. Gory and replete. Good stuff!
Thank you so much Maria! What an image to go to bed on, I know...glad you enjoyed it!
Well, dang -- I think you nailed this one -- spot on!
Oh that ballet slipper is exactly how I remember toe shoes. Yup. You nailed it. Again! Way to go!
Shannon: Thank you so much! It was a less difficult write than Day 13, but it still took a little bit of prodding the brain with sharp sticks.
Elizabeth: Thank you so very much! Toe shoes! *high five fellow ballerina* I remember how *noisy* they were, and how difficult it was to break them in initially. Sadly, I wasn't able to continue after college, but I'd love to try and do it again someday. I dance blues now, and some swing, which is lovely but it isn't the same.
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