The sounds, sights and scents of the market assailed our minds as we strolled confidently into the old town square, leather pouches heavy with silver jangling against our thighs. Fairly overwhelmed by the effulgent pharmacopeia of wares before us, we scoured for a stall to commence the dispersion of our hard earned coin.
Displays of enchanted legumes advertising giant beanstalks competed with combustible toadstools, aphrodisiac asparagus, Venus fairy traps, hollow-oak rings and wicker man apothecaries bursting with potions and herbal remedies – jostling one and all for legal tender our custom might engender.
Further along, held in pens, we observed tethered flying-swine, chocolate-milk cows, sheep in wolves clothing, golden ganders, crooning chanticleers and gold-fleeced rams, who squealed, brayed, clucked and honked a choral cacophony to the clamour and clatter of unbridled commerce.
Handcrafted reaping-scythes whistled slicing through air – heft of haft and curve of blade tested by eager young harvesters and apprentices to Death. The scaremongerers were present in profusion promising discounts for scarecrows purchased as family units. Rat-catchers plied us with poisons, sabre-toothed tabbies and hypnotic flutes.
Blacksmiths beat ploughshares from swords and guaranteed at least one lucky horseshoe among every double pair they nailed to nag´s hooves. Soothsayers forecast inclement weather, miserable crops, fruits of success and the stillbirth-counts of lambing season; stubbornly refusing petitions to speculate on matters of love, longevity and fertility.
Deeper within the bustling polis of peddlers, lost in a shantytown of covered stands we navigated with our noses until we came upon a redolent banquet salivating palates could scarce comprehend and commenced to assuage appetites with gluttonous abandon. Condiments were plentiful as were libations to wash them down – ciders, ales, wines and spirits glowed amber and gold as they swirled in tankard, goblet and crystal decanter.
As lanterns lit up encroaching dusk we no longer recognised our dull grey uniforms splashed with colourful stains or recalled our nameless past as cogs in the gears of A Giant Machine, but dimly did we recollect old lives of numb drudgery as we danced with one-legged jesters, compared body oddities with circus freaks and basked in therapeutic musk of woolly mammoth, blissfully unaware of queues, quotas and quiet despair of fading yesterdays when Diversity was deemed dangerous – Variety an enemy of the State.
That night we drifted in dreamless sleep upon mattresses buoyed by bountiful layers of toilet-tissue softer than an angel´s kiss, robotic souls embalmed in sweet dung, fresh from the Farmers Market.
Author notes
Greetings Fellow Scribblers. I am the proud purveyor of an allegory inscribed within the sleeve of the forthcoming musical issue of the emminent world-music orchestra - Farmers Market, due out in March 08 and highly recommended to all connoisseurs of aural perspicacity. Why this great honour even conferred upon thy humble author some coin to add a silver lining to the frayed innards of his lint-tainted pockets! Verily I do believe Two Woe Owe Ate will herald advantageous recompence for all my toil. Ah I can taste the fruit of my labours already - a heady brew indeed!
Do Bright Rays Pierce the Grey?
Comments
1 - 17 of 17
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As expected, this fulfilled, indeed filled full, a cornucopia of puns and quardruple-entendres that replenished my dense stalk of je-nesaisquoi, sending me off sufficiently encumbered, compenpendium-sated, until the guage reads E again. Thanks for the refill!
All best!
Terry
. Rewarded 6
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A Delight To Hear From You, Terry!
As always and it is my decided pleasure to add any drops of my own quill to the rich lagoon of your je-nesaisquoi.
Hope Spring will also add a bounce to your diligent stride.
To the best,
gG
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Please tell me,
What does she farm? In a beautifully written poem( maybe a bit much alliteration) filled with discription coming by the dozens, one fact has been left out. Otherwise, gorgeos, gorgeos poem. Thank you
. Rewarded 4
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Thank You Jenny
The Goddess farms our hearts, seeding spirit and nurturing forth wholesome souls.
gG
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< Cheers Caliente
Yeah. Its meant to be an antithesis of Fritz Lang dystopias and Mao mauseleums, thereby the hustle and bustle of fairy trail associations and pastoral mythologies. Organic is unfortunately powerfully represented by dung alluding to the age-old quandry inherent in "progress" = poo or plastic. hmmm.
And as for Farmer Piles, well, lets just say he grows shitloads...
Warm regards
gGwaor -
The sense of a market is here in spades
the jostling crowd of words embodies the experience, and that aspect I like. It's like the street scene from Harry Potter or Oliver or being at Camden Lock on a Sunday Morning. But for me personally, apologies as i'm a fan, it's too much: I could do with less alliteration and consonance. Maybe that would destroy the sense of crowding though... So for me it's a very mixed experience.
But hats off to you, mate, if it'll earn ya.
Best RA. Rewarded 8
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Cheers Riveralex!
Thanx for your comment and I quite agree to the feeling of slight enervation at the enmasse jiggery-wordery. It could perhaps have been improved with a few semantic pit.stops along its unwieldy path but blame its somewhat truncated form on the requirements imposed by limited sleeve-space in the CD (and not that I couldn´t be arsed to pace it properly).
Look out for Surfin USSR during the Ides of March.
Warmest regards
gG
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Oh gG oh gG oh gG! THIS is amazing. Not least of all because 1. I have something to buy on my birthday (I don't CARE that-it being the Ides of Marzo-I may bring them bad luck, this sort of thing is TOO good to pass up! Brilliant! Brilliant!), 2. it is the "right" kind of music and 3. YOU will have written the sleeve thingy on the inside. It's fantastic! It's unbelievable! It's precisely the sort of thing that will get me through the third quarter of school (semi) sane! I love coming to your page and seeing this sort of thing; I get lost in the flow of the words and the consonance, assonance, what have you, etc. It's like a deluge. Sort of like the music, right? I can't say I've heard of this particular group, but I'm thinking they're something like one of my own favorites, Beirut. Same sort of idea, I think. Eastern European/bluegrass/whatnot inspired music that is a trip of its own. I love that. It may be something I pursue in college. And now I have the opportunity to broaden my horizons and support a friend! (Congratulations, by the way. Also, is this the final draft, or are you sort of submitting it to a sounding board? Forgive me if that's a stupid question; in fact, I can probably answer it for myself considering March is only a few months away and production is a bitch) I'm looking forward to those Ides. Happy Owe Ate, mate.
Nienna. Rewarded 8
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Thanx Nienna!
Cheers for a wonderfully kind and generous comment! Afraid this was the final draft due to an immediate and somewhat kick-in-the-bollox deadline. I would ve loved to display this piece to the discerning perspicacity of my peers here at scarepo, Nienna, but...
There aren t so many alterations I can evince so hopefully it will not breed embarrased readthrus at a later date. Happy New Year Nienna and may the best of fortune preside all your endeavours in 08.
Warmest regards
gG
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And God is in his heaven
Congratulations gG, both on the piece and on the commission. It gives me hope that there is some justice in the world that talent such as your own should find recognition, not to mention, Heavens be praised, recompence (recomdollars - and many of them- if there is justice indeed) in this life. Your words quickly enveloped me in the magical world you so easily created. As always - a great write. May 2008 bring you further and wholly warranted success. John.. Rewarded 8
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too much detail in too little space perhaps. But i loved the hustling and bustling atmosphere you conjure. My place here is full of assorted people selling all sorts of stuff. And market place all across the world, even though disparate in terms of the people comprising them or the wares that are sold, are united in spirit.
This was a literary treat!
Good to see u around
HM. Rewarded 8
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Cheers Himanshumodi!
Happy New Year mate! There is an awful lot in a short space I agree, quite possibly too much, but then that´s how an inundation from grey drab mundanity to kaleidoscopic rainbows would, I imagine, feel like. "..united in spirit." Well put. Thanx!
Warmest regards
gG
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First off, gG, congratulations on the publishing of this charmer, no less on the sleeve of a new (to me) musical ensemble. I will look for it in March of 08, but, however, avoid buying it during the terrible Ides thereof. (The group sounds too playful and delightful to have it crossed with bad luck.) And, if the music is anything like your rich, lush fantasy here, it will help make for a very new year.
Now, your whirlwind of scents, narcotics, animals, musics, foods, tricksters, impish flora and fauna - it's a joy, a sweet turbulence of Utopia, a market of refreshment for the poet and for us - gray-uniformed as we are, "gears in The Great Machine", wallowing in this rush of good cheer and "dreamless sleep", enjoying, for a wondrous change, this pre-appled, preambled Eden of Goodnesses and Innocences, the joys of simply being human animals out for a raucous stroll in the enchanting garden of brief, fleshy delights.
Wonderful, gG, all the way. A true Cheer for all that's best, warm, diverse, playful and deeply good in us.
Lad. Rewarded 8
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Well Put Lad!
Your "second stanza" might easily be a poem in itself. "pre-appled..Eden.."! Good one! Hahah.
And hopefully Farmers will not receive inimicable Ides upon their release. The album is titled "Surfin´USSR" by the way and represents an eclectic hybrid of musical styles - Balkan, bluegrass, a version of Gerry and the Pacemakers´ "Ferry Cross the Mersey" sung in Hindi, Norwegian folk fiddling, the famous Bulgarian Voices - you name it. And to top it off, their new label is Mike Patten´s (FaithNoMore, MrBungle)Ipecac label based in Frisco.
Thanx Lad!
Warmest
gG
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