Fene
#2
(01-10-2026, 03:54 AM)David_Kaine Wrote:  whispering fields by the mill                     older than even a clock
   slowly infecting livestock                   pleasant and peaceful until
kids then come home with a chill          forming a few tiny pocks   

entering, no need to knock                 grudgingly swallow their pills
easily passing through locks              nurses and doctors with skill
figure it came from the spill              figure it came from the docks
    anger as hospitals fill                      making its way up the blocks

bringing disease to the flocks          living by sheer force of will
    everyone else falling ill                  misunderstanding and shock
kids will cry 'fene' to mock                   enemies no one can kill
In intensive critique, first, if column spacing is important, use a fixed font such as Courier (effectively, typewriter).  The effect in default font here is (close to) two columns, each centered.

If this is a form, it's very clever (the way A and B rhymes dance back and forth, with the reader wondering whether to make the leap or carriage-return to the next line).  The only break in meter is "livestock" - a variance is acceptable and sometimes welcome, but this one seems clumsy and perhaps unnecessary.  Since you have "flocks" later, perhaps simply "their stock" would work.

I make the time sequence roughly northwest to southeast, but all the lines deal with the same situation and can be traversed differently without losing meaning.

There are two possible problems with the last line of the first column.  The first is "fene," also the title, which I had to look up.  Once aware that it's a foreign word for a minor demon and/causing a disease, it makes sense.  "[M]ock," though, feels like forced rhyme - which tends to happen toward the end of a piece.  I can picture children using the word as an insult, not knowing quite what it means but something bad and personal/personified, yet not in a *mocking* way, exactly.  Maybe.  I'd use italics, without single quotes, to indicate simultaneously that "fene" is a foreign word and that it's shouted.  Perhaps an exclamation point:  fene!

So just those two rough spots.  It's good in that it forces the reader to pay attention, assembling the evidence.  Not a medical person, I'd diagnose anthrax.
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Messages In This Thread
Fene - by David_Kaine - 01-10-2026, 03:54 AM
RE: Fene - by dukealien - 01-10-2026, 06:23 AM
RE: Fene - by David_Kaine - 01-10-2026, 08:31 AM
RE: Fene - by milo - 01-11-2026, 12:46 AM
RE: Fene - by David_Kaine - 01-11-2026, 05:02 AM
RE: Fene - by milo - 01-11-2026, 05:41 AM
RE: Fene - by David_Kaine - 01-12-2026, 12:42 AM



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