Birnam Wood

FICTION - BIRNAM WOOD BY T. CORAGHESSAN BOYLE
in The New Yorker - September 3, 2012
(Notes/quotes in my Webnotes - begin from the bottom up!)


Existing in a chicken coop lifestyle
Plagued by 
Grim
Cold
Rain

Luxuriating at
Birnam Wood
A Tudor house in a
Lakeside setting

There was really no question of preferred choice
If opportunity 
Begged

But the glitter of luxury
Secreted 
A sticky substance
A kind of Macbeth consequence
Specially formulated for those who could lay no rightful claim of ownership to
Anything

Or
Anyone

The Red Poppy

The Red Poppy (2012)  – David Hill – Illustrated by Fifi Colston – pub. Creative New Zealand


Imagine
Thousands of soldiers
Marching through the night to their trenches
In the dark
So the Germans can’t see them

Imagine
Ted a stretcher bearer
And
His friend Matiu

And the messenger dog
Nipper
– like a puppy.

(Soldiers found him in a ruined village.
Soldiers could write messages and tuck them in his little leather bag.)

Imagine
Jim
Wounded
And a German
Wounded
Finding a special connection
With the help of
A little dog
And a field of
Poppies

Imagine finding a book
That takes moments to read
But lingers
A lifetime


 


The Red Poppy by David Hill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A story set in World War I, where the public enemy is not always the private enemy; where red poppies are not always a symbol of death.
And a little dog knows.
Could the ravages of war possibly hold some beautiful moments?
The illustrations by Fifi Colston are a delight!

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