this month's timely superstition
FRIDAY THE 13TH
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS
in the bookmark above and the sign below
[also this wreath]
Friday the Thirteenth
For Keith,
Friday the Thirteenth
held no fear.
He wasn’t superstitious
(or even a little bit stitious),
and didn’t view the day
as particularly suspicious
or with the promise
of the unpropitious.
It was then a black cat
crossed his path,
causing him to step on a crack
which made him stagger
under a ladder,
and shatter a mirror
being carried
by a passing albatross,
who suffered fatal blood loss
from a shard
which flew hard
into its heart.
Keith didn’t think anything of it
until later that day,
at a wine reception,
he found himself trapped
in a conversation
about Jeremy Clarkson.
I opened an umbrella indoors and waited for misfortune to rain down upon me.
Nothing happened.
I walked beneath a ladder and waited for the sky to fall.
Nothing happened.
I placed a pair of shoe on a table and waited for fate to trample me down.
Nothing happened.
I smashed up a mirror with a hammer and waited to be pierced by the shards
of seven year's suffering.
And still nothing happened.
With the third strike of a match, I set fire to a chain letter sent to me by a raven,
with a forwarding on date of Friday the 13th, and waited, rather nonchalantly.
Not a sausage.
Three years later, I lost my house keys down a storm drain.
The following week, Brexit happened.
Five months after that, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States.
Later, there came a deadly pandemic and then war in Europe.
How easy to think the things we do carry no importance.
How easy to imagine our actions are without consequence.
How foolish we are to ignore the old stories.
~ Brian Bilston ~
Next Fortnightly Post
Saturday, October 28th
Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com
Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com
Wonderful! Fate is such a factor in everything and we don’t see it coming. Have missed your posts. I hope you are well, Kitti. Went by your old house on Olive (?) yesterday and told Steve we used to eat nachos and dance there, defying fate I guess.
ReplyDeleteThanks Burnetta! Those were the days . . . we'd sing and dance forever and a day!
ReplyDelete