The salt marsh had given up its royal coronations many times over before the spectacle of frothy arabesques emulsified the briny deep.
Three houses stood near the northern edge of the marsh, and a salt refinery ringed the southern edge. The first house asked the second house for a cup of sugar. I was about to ask you for the same, said the second house. The third house said too bad you don’t need a cup of salt, I have plenty. The second house said why are we standing. The third house said what do you mean? The second house said read the first sentence of this paragraph: “Three houses stood…” We could have been sitting all along. The three houses sat down by the northern edge of the salt marsh.
The first house shouted at the salt refinery across the marsh, why are you ringing your side of the marsh. The salt marsh shouted back I have never rang anything in my life–but someone did once tell me I was a dead ringer for my brother. The three houses huddled together and giggled about the nutty salt refinery across the salt marsh. The salt marsh said does anyone know what to do with a big bag of sugar?
The giggling stopped, the smiling began, and the opulent spectacle of frothy arabesques emulsified the briny deep once more.
The queen of the salt marsh with an arm full of sugar. Don’t worry if you mistake her bare shoulders for a frilly hula hoop. King Charles himself doubles as photographer and namesake.
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I really enjoy reading these. Gets me smiling first thing each morning, thanx
Thanks, Ernie. Your smiles make me smile.
LOL! The Queen of the Salt Marsh looks vaguely familiar. . . I can’t quite put a finger on it.
You’ll know! You’ll know!
I adore her pretentious archaism, in particular since I wrote a sonnet today. I’ll post it soon, but first Wepwawet (tune in tomorrow ;-)).
Awesome! Have you come across this in the back catalog? https://rickmallery.wordpress.com/2023/12/03/reading-ulysses-in-montana-389/
I love this series. I’m still quite intimidated by Ulysses, but I enjoy reading what you do with every four pages of it. Would you mind if I did a series inspired by this that followed The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky? I would, of course, credit you with the idea.
No prob. I’d love to see what others do with this general idea. I’ve always felt this series is about sharing an attitude, not building a personal and possessive platform. Dostoyevsky is one of my favorites, and Alyosha’s Grand Inquisitor is something I re-read often, so go for it!
Absolutely! I love the idea of building a community of readers, writers, and poets, rather than focusing on numbers. I have read the Grand Inquisitor portion for school, and am ready to begin digesting the whole novel. Thank you!
<3 <3 <3
😀
You’re my inspiration in my content writing journey.
Loved this. Looking forward to reading your others which I have saved up until it had enough time!
Gwen.
Thanks, Gwen. I appreciate you!
Don’t try to understand how this happened, but “The queen of the salt marsh with an arm full of sugar” evoked a stanza from a poem whose name I can’t recall, “Lady Venus on the settee of the horsehair sea”. Like I said, I can’t explain why this is, but there it is.
That’s awesome! 😀