Poem: "Always Guided by Passion"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem came out of the January 6, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from see_also_friend. It also fills "The End of the World" square in my 1-1-26 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred. It belongs to the Shiv thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It follows "Cause a Riot of Color."


"Always Guided by Passion"

[Morning of Saturday, September 17, 2016]

Bo-Art and Creamjeans
were new to Omaha, so Shiv
was showing them around town.

"This railyard is good for graffiti,"
he explained, swinging the gate open.
"Long as we don't slash the boilerplate
on the train cars or make trouble,
the bulls here don't bother us."

"Boilerplate?" Bo-Art asked.

Shiv pointed to a parked tanker.
"See that square at the top with
letters and numbers?" he said.
"That's the boilerplate from
the train company. It's gotta
stay clear for tracking and stuff.
Outside that box is what we
call a rolling public art gallery."

"There's a lot going on here,"
Creamjeans mused. "I see
all kinds of different styles."

"Yeah, things got a bit
mixed up after the Big One,"
Shiv agreed. "Used to be
mostly us and Lincoln, plus
Siouxland up to the north,
Kansas City to the south,
Des Moines out east, and
on to the Heights going west."

"Is that tribal?" Bo-Art said,
looking at a medicine wheel.

"It is, probably from Siouxland,"
said Shiv. "Sometimes we get --
wait, what the heck is that?"

He stared at a round figure
done mostly in black and
white with touches of
red, blue, and green.

"Whale and Eagle are
fighting," Bo-Art said.
"Must be from someone
off the West Coast. That
is a story people tell about
earthquakes and tidal waves."

"Real end-of-the-world shit,"
Creamjeans added solemnly.
"You don't like coastal art?"

"Ain't my business to tell folks
what to paint," Shiv said, shrugging.
"The important thing is that each work
is always guided by passion."

"You said it," Bo-Art agreed.

* * *

Notes:

This comes after:

"Cause a Riot of Color" 5-8-25
Story Date: Evening of Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Summary: Shiv welcomes Creamjeans and Bo-Art to Omaha.

"The important thing is that each work is always guided by passion."
-- Jorit AGOch

Nebraska and Plains Cities Map

The West Coast has many indigenous tales about Whale (or Killer Whale) and Eagle (or Thunderbird) fighting, which relate to disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis.

Whale and Eagle Fighting Art (saved, archived on Wayback)