Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Poem: "The Bricolage of Banished Lives"

This poem came out of the January 5, 2016 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by a prompt from siliconshaman.  It also fills the "opposites attract" square in my 10-2-15 card for the Ladiesbingo fest.  This poem belongs to the Polychrome Heroics series.

This microfunded poem is being posted one verse at a time, as donations come in to cover them.  The rate is $.50/line, so $5 will reveal 10 new lines, and so forth. There is a permanent donation button on my profile page, or you can contact me for other arrangements. You can also ask me about the number of lines per verse, if you want to fund a certain number of verses.
So far sponsors include: siliconshaman, general fund

FULLY FUNDED
44 lines, Buy It Now = $20
Amount donated = $5
Verses posted = 2 of 11
Amount remaining to fund fully = $15
Amount needed to fund next verse = $1
Amount needed to fund the verse after that = $2


The Bricolage of Banished Lives
-- a chastushka


See Ilyana softly shining,
Cherenkov a ghostly hue
And beside her Blue Blaze running
Fast enough to blur her too.

One is heavy, solid, stubborn;
One is laughter, light, and grace.
Still each of them loves the other,
Struggling to find their place.

False dawn glimmers all above them
As the city sleeps about
While it's safe to venture onward,
No one here to see them out.

When the city wakes they scurry
Out of view and down below,
Guardians of secret duty
Keeping faith as on they go.

Hidden from the world they harbor
Working wonders out of sight,
Banished from the ordinary
Now they live within the light.

Based in an abandoned bunker
Half decrepit, half deluxe
Like two hearts in cryptic measure
Feel along the neutron flux.

Women twine as mortal lovers,
Opposites and yet alike,
Differing in stranger layers
Kindling from sparks they strike.

When they work, they make equipment
From what they find on the way.
Torn-off doors shield them from weapons;
Half a car becomes a sleigh.

Well they know the rules they live by:
Make it do, or do without
Scrounging tools to do their jobs with
Never pausing for a doubt.

Not for them is all the limelight;
Not all heras make the news.
Thus they do their work in private,
Not in front of fawning crews.

So for now they're friends and lovers --
Someday, maybe, they'll be wives --
Partners, always, bound together,
Bricolage of banished lives.

* * *

Notes:

The chastushka is a Russian poem or folk song.

Trochaic meter uses feet consisting of a stressed syllable and then an unstressed syllable.  This pattern is more natural in Russian than in English (where iambic is more common) but it still works in both.

Bricolage is the art of making do with what you have.

Neutron flux is a quantity used in nuclear reactor physics.
Tags: cyberfunded creativity, fantasy, fishbowl, poem, poetry, reading, romance, writing
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  • 5 comments
siliconshaman

siliconshaman

January 13 2016, 12:57:06 UTC 5 years ago

In Ilyana's case Neutron flux is also a pretty reliable measure of the amount of exercise she's doing, and something she keeps an eye because while Blaze is radiation resistant, she's not immune and the neutron flow is an indication of how much Ilyana is making her surroundings radioactive. [neutrons make other atoms unstable, aka radioactive.]

In other words... it's something Ilyana worries about because she fears she could be slowly killing Blaze.
ysabetwordsmith

Thoughts

ysabetwordsmith

January 13 2016, 17:16:11 UTC 5 years ago

>> In Ilyana's case Neutron flux is also a pretty reliable measure of the amount of exercise she's doing, and something she keeps an eye because while Blaze is radiation resistant, she's not immune and the neutron flow is an indication of how much Ilyana is making her surroundings radioactive. [neutrons make other atoms unstable, aka radioactive.] <<

That makes sense.

>> In other words... it's something Ilyana worries about because she fears she could be slowly killing Blaze. <<

:( It's possible.

On the other hoof, people keep jobs they love despite the danger, such as mountaineering or firefighting, which can kill you a lot quicker.

On the third hoof, superpowers tend to get stronger with practice, especially in modern times. Someone who starts out with radiation resistance and gets a lot of exposure may well develop immunity.
siliconshaman

Re: Thoughts

siliconshaman

January 13 2016, 20:24:29 UTC 5 years ago Edited:  January 13 2016, 20:27:08 UTC

I think this subject is rather the elephant in the room with the pair. Blaze knows the danger after all, as do Ilyana, but they don't talk about it, it's one of the reasons that they're foot-dragging on the wedding.

Ilyana is scared of hurting Blaze, she knows what the negative consequences of radiation exposure are far too well. She hasn't accepted the risk to Blaze, even though Blaze has.
thnidu

thnidu

February 22 2016, 22:04:14 UTC 5 years ago

GLAD
HAPPY
About how they're doing, as shown here.

• Neutron flux is a quantity use in nuclear reactor physics.
-> used
ysabetwordsmith

Thank you!

ysabetwordsmith

February 22 2016, 22:08:31 UTC 5 years ago

>> GLAD
HAPPY
About how they're doing, as shown here. <<

This is good to hear.

>> • Neutron flux is a quantity use in nuclear reactor physics.
-> used <<

Fixed.