The Forest Prime Evil by Alan Russell

Author:Alan Russell [Russell, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Three Tails Press
Published: 2019-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

“To him who in the love of Nature holds

Communion with her visible forms, she speaks

A various language.”

His oration wasn’t the best, his words dulled by alcohol, and lack of teeth, but his dramatic entrance commanded the floor. He attended to his drink before us. When he finished sipping, he accepted my questioning glance. He had very blue eyes, or maybe they looked that way because there was more red than white to his pupils. His face was concave, the lack of teeth giving his lips a puckered look, like an old roué.

“William Cullen Bryant,” he said, overmouthing the words. “ ‘Thanatopsis.’ ”

Dan said, “That’s mighty pretty.” But he didn’t mean it. He was embarrassed, as if the old man had broken one of the rules of the bar. He was supposed to be an oddity, a fixture like the colored plastic lamp shades or the bordello red vinyl; part of the atmosphere, the ancient rummy without teeth.

“How did you remember that?” I asked.

“Miss Lundy,” he said. “In the sixth grade. She was one for poetry, made us read and memorize it. Some of the townsfolk thought she was too much a freethinker. She once went out with a Wobbly, was the story.”

“That was the poem recited at the Green Man’s funeral?”

He nodded, long and exaggerated.

“Were you there?”

“Course.”

“Why?”

“Biggest funeral this county’s ever seen. Couldn’t miss that. Got to pretend everyone was there for me.”

I left, but not without buying him another drink, and not without telling him that Miss Lundy would have been proud of him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.