Ponyville & Other Poems

by AugieDog

25 - Call and Response (pantoum)

Within the shadowed forest deep,
She watches where the flowers crawl.
The trees that dance and flail and weep
Entrance her, make her feel so small.

She watches where the flowers crawl
Abundantly; the bursting scents
Entrance her, make her feel so small,
The life the least here represents.

Abundantly, the bursting scents
Surround the dust she still can taste.
The life the least here represents
Confirms she's blessed. She's not disgraced.

Surround the dust she still can taste
With water flowing free. The air
Confirms she's blessed. She's not disgraced.
The land she left cannot compare

With water flowing free, the air
A spice that wraps her, sweet and cool.
The land she left cannot compare.
If she'd remained, she'd be a fool.

A spice that wraps her, sweet and cool,
Ingredients to make her whole.
If she'd remained, she'd be a fool;
It's here she's nurturing a soul.

Ingredients to make her whole,
The trees that dance and flail and weep.
It's here she's nurturing a soul
Within the shadowed forest deep.

Author's Note:

The pantoum as I'm doing it here is an English version of a French adaptation of a Malaysian poetic form. Multicultural, in other words, so I figured I'd give one to Zecora.

Comments

[Lurks-no-More]

Huh. You just made me see Zecora in an entirely different light!

She always appears so cool and collected, full of secret lore and wisdom, at ease among the dangers of the Everfree Forest, that I've never thought of her like this: a curious, awe-filled explorer of a strange and beautiful place who feels herself lucky to have the chance to live there.

[TheJediMasterEd]

Yeah, I've often wondered why* Zecora came out to the Everfree from wherever it is she's from.

Back when I used to climb I was once with a guide who did the Carstensz Pyramid in Borneo:

snow-forecast.com/resortphotos2/Carstensz-Pyramid.jpg
A Paramount(tm) Production

Now this guy grew up in New Hampshire and as a kid his bedroom was covered with posters of jungles and tropical islands and all these places that are as not like New Hampshire as you can get. So he goes to Borneo and meets the local guide and goes over to his house, and the local guide's bedroom is covered with posters of...

...Currier-and-Ives prints of people riding horse-drawn sleighs in a snowcovered English countryside, and the hills of New England all aflame with fall color.

So I'm thinking: yeah, that. Zecora wanted to see snow, wanted to see leaves that changed color. All this was just stories and pictures to her growing up and it seemed so impossible, yet everyone told her it was real and so she wanted to see it.

* I mean other than because Hasbro needed to do their one episode on racism so they needed one "black" character. Back in the day, they called this "pew-renting."

[AugieDog]

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I've been thinking a lot:

About Zecora since she's gonna be the catalyst for the next "Clandestine Corps" story--if I can ever manage to stop writing other things and settle in to writing it, I mean. And the whole "two steps forward, one step back" nature of the pantoum sort of sums her up for me: she's drawn to this place that's so very unlike where she comes from, and she feels kind of guilty about it.

Mike

[sopchoppy]

More words about Zecora need to be inked, nicely done.

[GhostOfHeraclitus]

Always a treat to hear from the pony poet laureate.

5157033
You have the best stories, I swear.

I'm now rather sorry I can't fully integrate that idea into my Zecora, as she has the whole baggage about the Sent in my Equestria. Still. Beautiful idea.

[AugieDog]

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Thanks, folks!

I guess I'm in the mood for season one side characters: I'm just wrapping up my whole "what happened to Gilda afterwards" story, and Zecora will be back when I finally get settled into the next "Clandestine Corps" adventure. And if Ghost here is talking about Zecora, maybe we'll see something there?

Mike

[PresentPerfect]

Damn. Now you're just showing off. D: