Sister Quill

Photo art is "Living Totem," By Mike Rosenberg    
© 2016 Hex Entertainment. Published by Hex Entertainment and Gameforge 4D GmbH.      
All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.    
     
There is a Zen saying, "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water, after enlightenment, chop wood, carry water."    
     
Went for a walk in the cold dark. The man all sheathed in black, a constant stream of wind, ground wet with shadows.    
     
Stop and stare at what visible stars have thrust their chins from the recessed faces of their respective constellations. Sitting beside the road, alone with all I know.    
     
Upon the hewn geography of my thoughts, emotions trace invisible lines of demarcation. I pass through states of sorrow, to calm, to elation.    
     
Sister Quill, know that my strength is to shake the nesting birds from slumber, where my will is wind upon the boughs, beholden of the bending arm of branches. I thank you, also, for the hand you reach to me.    
     
My charge is to stand in the breach, meet the moving wall of descending waters, where my gaze does not waiver from the colossal approach of liquid limbs swept by lunar tides of weeping waves.    
     
My power is to lift the booted heel that crushes me, crowning my brow with a horizontal wall of weight. To weave ash into a cloak of clockwork thread that bares an emblazoned clasp of cinder. To burn and burn and burn.    
     
I am the living totem, whose rising tower of avatars coalesce, one upon the next, as I resurrect.    
     
Killed the music about a quarter mile from home. Listened to the low digestion of engines, breath of funnelled air that pours through the undercarriage.    
     
Upon every corner of the earth, suffering abounds, and yet, who could deny its beauty.    
     
Sister Quill    
By    
Daniel Christensen    
Writing as    
The Fire Elemental

Copyright © 2017 by Daniel Christensen. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.