Maybe this is what killed the Egyptians.
Category: Death and dying
“Blurtso learns a lesson”
Look at all that hay! I wonder if I can fit through the fence?
Oh, oh, my ears won’t go back… and I’m too fat to go forward.
I guess I’ll just have to stay here. Hmm… I can’t even reach the hay. That’s all right. I wasn’t hungry in the first place. I just wanted to stuff myself. I wonder how long I’ll be here? Someone is bound to come along. Someone with a super-modern high-tech donkey-saving tool. I don’t know why I wanted that hay, I wasn’t even hungry. But I’ll be hungry tomorrow. Then I’ll want that hay. But all I’ll have is the grass in front of me. I’d better be careful. I don’t want to eat it all. I’ve got to save enough grass for the next day, and the day after that. And I’ve got to leave enough on top so the roots don’t burn. Fortunately I’ve got a puddle of water, so I won’t die of thirst. Unless I have gas. I’ve heard that methane contributes to global warming, and if the temperature rises, the water will evaporate and the grass will burn. All because I wanted to stuff myself. And I wasn’t even hungry.
And so the days passed—night after day and day after night—and Blurtso tended his garden, eating only what was necessary to maintain his strength, and drinking only enough to slake his thirst. And from time to time it rained, and his puddle filled and his grass grew. And every day he looked at the hay, drying, splitting, and losing its fragrance, until one day when he was enjoying his morning snack… he slipped through the fence.
Hey! I’m skinny enough to get through! And to get out!
Hmm…
“Blurtso happens upon a harbinger”
It sure is hot…
I hope this riverbed leads to water.
I haven’t had a drink for days…
but I’m sure there’s no need to worry.
Oh, oh…
“Blurtso isn’t first”
Hey… what’s this?
You mean… there were Blurtsos before me?
“Blurtso takes a trip” (XIX)
The stone is clean now, and polished in the sun. And there is no sign of blood. But how many donkeys labored away their lives, hoof after hoof after hoof, to build this place?
“Starry starry night”
“Blurtso considers corporate America”
mayhem \’mā-hem\ noun.
(Anglo-French from Old French maynier: to maim)
“willful and permanent crippling, mutilation, or disfigurement
of any part of the body; needless or willful damage.”
“Blurtso lets go of a dream”
“Blurtso loses track” (IV)
I’ve opened and closed the latch on this barn door every day for three years, said Blurtso, and I can’t remember what it looks like… I couldn’t begin to describe it, or describe a thousand other things I’ve used again and again and again. Yes, said Harlan, that’s the way it is, we stumble blindly along, and then one day we’re gone and only the forgotten things remain.
“Graham Cracker Crumbs” (XV)
“It is early”
Of course, it is early.
You will hear other voices
sing other songs.
You will choose one.
You will come to know
the depth of the shadows
in the grasses.
You will see friends
grow and wither,
and dreams and sorrows
slip away.
Will you forget these songs?
Will they vanish in the beauty
with which they cannot compete,
the white mountain, the red rose,
the resolute eyes of a lover?
Or will they remain,
and remind you of the glow
your eyes had once,
and the magic they inspired
in the heart of another?