Improv' / riff off of Fireworks, August 25 from our course text (p.38)
Snowflakes, December 25
I steal the cold winter breath, the blinking white lights are mine,
the burns. Stories of holy wood houses and St. Nick's diner.
Silver smells of the tin chimney. He wins your dancing dreams,
milk and gingerbread men. I drew an elfy picture of my ears
for your stocking. It didn't sing at first, but one
week later the fire still nipped at the bottom of the burnt-red
bag. He'll never remember lying horizontally in flannel by a
shadow. Everyone crossed toes when we leaped in by the sound
of Mariah Carey's "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". Mr. Winter's
snowflakes still wet my, not his, dotted tongue. A naked oak tree
stares, the only witness to the dead world trampled under tattered
fingerprints left from the souls of boots, and tires tracks. Powdery
and hot, watery-chocolate drowns white cubes in his cup. Smooth
and slick. Still, when I envision him, I sigh.
I love how this improvisation captures so well the sound and style of Fireworks, August 25, but is still an individualized imitation (language wasn't overly mimicked, images were exchanged, etc.). I feel that riffing off of this could in turn define a direction, maybe focusing in on a particular event or feeling. I particularly enjoyed the line "A naked oak tree stares, the only witness to the dead world trampled under tattered fingerprints left from the souls of boots, and tire tracks". Much strong language is packed into this one sentence, and I think that working with it will be rewarding.
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