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"One of my most eye-opening experiences as a working class person moving into educated and middle class spaces was the correction to my misconception that wealthy people are clever."

"LIGHT RIDDLES

I

Once I could kindle fire;
Now I am cold as ice.
I have forgot desire
Buried in earth's blind vise,
Changed wholly, yet the same,
Wild with abiding flame.

II

This constellation isn't made
Of frozen rock or fiery gas.
This galaxy but fills a glade;
These stars (they'll wink inside a glass)
Are born in summer's falling shade,
And fade like dew in summer grass.

III

A crystal buckler
Guards a dark hall
Everything enters—
And nothing at all.

IV

I am the window of time,
In which a single scene,
Always and never the same,
Forms on a shimmering screen;

The well of eternity,
Receding in the center,
Through which infinity
Beckons where none can enter.

V

The most successful suitors know
When not to tell the truth.
When girls are young we show their age;
In age we bring them youth.

VI

A clock without a town,
A lamp that sheds no light,
A silver carriage drawn
By horses black and white;

A scythe that never swings,
A bow without a mark,
A bell that ever hangs
Suspended in its arc;

An egg without a yolk,
A peach without a stone,
A mantle blue as milk,
A dandelion unblown;

A vanished childhood friend,
A woman wreathed with foam,
The one who lags behind,
The one who leads you home."

Answers: diamond, fireflies, eye, mirror, candles, moon

--Catherine Tufariello

Last gif of 2023.

"The gold long dim in Herculaneum..." --Clark Ashton Smith

· Sciamachy ·.