Poem: "Restoration"
Aug. 16th, 2011 05:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem was inspired by prompts from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aldersprig, the_vulture, and moonwolf1988. It comes early in the Monster House series, between "Home Shriek Home" and "Sticky Fingers."
This microfunded poem is being posted one verse at a time, as donations come in to cover them. The rate is $.50 per line, so $5 will reveal 10 new lines, and so forth. There is a permanent donation button on my profile page, or you can contact me for other arrangements. You can also ask me about the number of lines per verse, if you want to fund a certain number of verses. So far sponsors include:the_vulture, zianuray, laffingkat, kitrona, thesilentpoet
110 lines, Buy It Now = $55
Amount donated = $31
Verses posted = 15 of 25
Amount remaining to fund fully = $24
Amount needed to fund next verse = $5.50
Amount needed to fund the verse after that = $2.50
When the kitchen radiator stopped working
in our fixer-upper house,
we waited for the troll in the basement
to restore the pressure.
An hour later, he trundled up the stairs
and poked at the radiator with various tools.
Then he shook his head.
"Need another radiator," he declared,
removing the old one from its place.
So my girl and I went to the salvage yard
in search of a working radiator.
We discarded several that looked too worn
before I finally spied one in good condition.
When I tried to lift it out of the pile, though,
something slightly softer than metal
shifted under my hand.
"What the...?"
I said.
"Loose pipe?"
my girl asked, frowning.
"No," I said, "not a pipe."
My hands traced the long form,
cold as metal and motionless.
A serpentine head flopped free
of the radiator's coils.
"Oh! It's a dragon!"
my girl exclaimed.
"It looks dead,"
I said sadly.
"Maybe not," she said.
"They need heat, like snakes.
He could be hibernating.
Help me untangle him."
So we carefully extricated the dragon
from the mass of metal, its scaly hide
a perfect match for the coiled piping,
its paws curled into stiff little fists.
My girl unzipped her jacket,
wrapped the limp dragon around her waist,
then zipped up her jacket again.
"Do you think body heat will be enough?"
I asked quietly.
She folded her arms around herself
and the dragon. "Not really," she said,
"but it may help, at least until we get home."
I heaved the radiator onto the little cart
and hauled it to the counter to pay.
As we drove home, I watched
from the corner of my eye,
but I never saw a sign of motion.
I lugged the replacement radiator inside
while my girl tucked the dragon into the oven
and turned the dial to broil.
The troll installed the radiator while
the monsters under-the-bed and in-the-closet
peered through the oven window,
murmuring to each other:
"Is it dead?"
"I think it moved."
[To be continued...]
aldersprig, the_vulture, and moonwolf1988. It comes early in the Monster House series, between "Home Shriek Home" and "Sticky Fingers."This microfunded poem is being posted one verse at a time, as donations come in to cover them. The rate is $.50 per line, so $5 will reveal 10 new lines, and so forth. There is a permanent donation button on my profile page, or you can contact me for other arrangements. You can also ask me about the number of lines per verse, if you want to fund a certain number of verses. So far sponsors include:
the_vulture, zianuray, laffingkat, kitrona, thesilentpoet110 lines, Buy It Now = $55
Amount donated = $31
Verses posted = 15 of 25
Amount remaining to fund fully = $24
Amount needed to fund next verse = $5.50
Amount needed to fund the verse after that = $2.50
Restoration
When the kitchen radiator stopped working
in our fixer-upper house,
we waited for the troll in the basement
to restore the pressure.
An hour later, he trundled up the stairs
and poked at the radiator with various tools.
Then he shook his head.
"Need another radiator," he declared,
removing the old one from its place.
So my girl and I went to the salvage yard
in search of a working radiator.
We discarded several that looked too worn
before I finally spied one in good condition.
When I tried to lift it out of the pile, though,
something slightly softer than metal
shifted under my hand.
"What the...?"
I said.
"Loose pipe?"
my girl asked, frowning.
"No," I said, "not a pipe."
My hands traced the long form,
cold as metal and motionless.
A serpentine head flopped free
of the radiator's coils.
"Oh! It's a dragon!"
my girl exclaimed.
"It looks dead,"
I said sadly.
"Maybe not," she said.
"They need heat, like snakes.
He could be hibernating.
Help me untangle him."
So we carefully extricated the dragon
from the mass of metal, its scaly hide
a perfect match for the coiled piping,
its paws curled into stiff little fists.
My girl unzipped her jacket,
wrapped the limp dragon around her waist,
then zipped up her jacket again.
"Do you think body heat will be enough?"
I asked quietly.
She folded her arms around herself
and the dragon. "Not really," she said,
"but it may help, at least until we get home."
I heaved the radiator onto the little cart
and hauled it to the counter to pay.
As we drove home, I watched
from the corner of my eye,
but I never saw a sign of motion.
I lugged the replacement radiator inside
while my girl tucked the dragon into the oven
and turned the dial to broil.
The troll installed the radiator while
the monsters under-the-bed and in-the-closet
peered through the oven window,
murmuring to each other:
"Is it dead?"
"I think it moved."
[To be continued...]
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-11 12:31 am (UTC)Yes...
Date: 2011-10-11 01:04 am (UTC)