Snake, Mitochondria, Ecthroi: I MIss You

Snake on garden wall
Leads to mitochondria
Love destroys ecthroi

 

Madeleine L'Engle
Beloved doctor of words
Mercury crater

Twilight of the Red Man

Cochise rode off into the sunset. As usual.

It was just the sort of thing Indians did. Had always done. Had expected to always do. His father, and his father's father, and all his ancestors as far back as he could remember, had done this. Many of his tribe had done this. He, himself, had done this many times.

But this would be the last time. The White Man had come so Cochise and his women and his children and his chief warriors all rode off into the sunset.

This was the last ride. The entire tribe had gathered to watch. They sensed that this was the twilight of their empire. Cochise would return tomorrow with wisdom, renewed for another year to lead the People.

But only for one more year.

Dawn arrived. As one, the People turned to greet the rising Sun, their still solemnness belying their excitement as they awaited the return of Cochise.

By noon it was evident Cochise was not returning. All turned to the medicine man, Shoshime.

"I warned you," he began softly. "I warned Cochise, too. There was not enough rocket fuel for a final, round trip. He should have left that vain ride for a White Man."

Silently, the People formed up and rode off on their war horses to their last battle.

Copyright 1995, 1996, 2013 Triple R Publishing, Round Rock, TX. All rights reserved.

 

[225 words exactly, counting the title, not counting copyright or this-- that would be cheating.]

Peggy's Bored? Easy to Fix!

I'm used to teenagers posting that they're bored. I usually just hand them a list of things to do (from workouts to creative things to reading or watching movies). But when one of my brilliant adult friends said she was bored, it caught me off guard. But hey, software geekdom can mix with counseling! Here's the result.

Top 10 Reasons North Korea Threatened to Nuke austin

10) Pyongyang isn't on the list of Chuys openings this year.
9) TXDOT figured a nuclear war was cheaper than building all the roads we need, so they slipped him some money to help out.
8) He's still mad about Dallas going off the air, but forgot the city name.
7) Translation error; they meant to nuke Boston.
6) He's jealous of Rick Perry's hair.
5) We've been in the news a lot lately (SXSW, etc) so he figures we must be important.
4) He's hoping we'll pay him off not to nuke us. Probably with SXSW VIP passes.
3) The whole thing was a joke. I mean, invading with imaginary hovercraft?
2) He likes Austin, and figures with mutations we'll be even weirder.
1) He wants to be the weirdest thing on the planet, which means we gotta go.