... overheard in the empty caverns of my skull:


"Passage to Love"


Into my life a change has come
I tremble before the awesome prospect
"Terrible as an army with banners"
That will transform me into I know not what.

I cannot refrain, to turn away impossible.
To betray the gift that you have given
Cannot be born. What can be born
Between us two I cannot say.

All that I have been has led to this
All that you are leads us on.
Alone no longer, nor me nor you;
Take my hand, the world awaits.

***

"A Lover's Reply"


Challenge accepted, on we go.
If we will stop, I sure don't know.
But we can't stop before we begin
What risk too great with the world to win?

Though fear there be, is there not joy?
We'll travel on, and be not coy
To face what challenges lie ahead.
It's the very reason why we were wed.

You worry too much, my dearest love
Foretelling rain from the clouds above.
For without rain, there is no growth
And life holds happiness for us both.

***

For extra credit, guess the genders of the two speakers.

-- Mal

Sad songs, poignant songs, even songs that are lachrymose. Maybe to bring a tear to the cheek, or a welling in the heart.

Example:



-- Mal

Since it appears to be a year since my mother left this plane...

Someday will lie a book unfinished,
A meal uneaten, a song unheard.
Someday will lie a silent sleeper
Off onto his journey's end.

Our lives are books no one will read
Though some may survey scattered segments
Or sit as sidekick in serial sequence,
Rolling through the years together.

Yet never knowing 'neath the pages
All the author did intend.

-- Mal

... rave review at Rock, Paper, Shotgun: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/05/31/cultist-simulator-review/#more-549023

Mr Kennedy is one of the best writers of eldritch games out there, as a brief tour through "Fallen London" (with which he is no longer associated, alas) will show. For the Lovecraftians among us.

-- Mal

Camera zooms in on USS Enterprise as she encounters a huge alien vessel of unknown construction in the vasty deeps of space.

Kirk: "Mr Spock, what are the chances that a ship from a species that we've never encountered before and know absolutely nothing about is packing a weapon that can vaporize Enterprise faster than Bones can say 'We're dead, Jim?'"

Spock: (fools around at his science station for a few seconds, producing a series of beeps and clicks and pretty lights, and possibly a few mutters of "fascinating" ) "Captain, the probability of that totally unknown and unknowable circumstance is approximately 97.362 percent."

Kirk: "Well, in that case, I sure hope the alien commander is a gorgeous, hot woman with whom I can have sex and force to submit to my Unsurpassed Male Potency."

Spock: "The probability of that is exactly 100%. It's right here in the script on Page 17."

Uhura: "I'm scared, Captain."


-- Mal

... should be quite sufficient to demonstrate that bombing doesn't work!

-- Mal

... who covers my mouth when I yawn even when I'm alone?

I've also been known to say "gesundheit" to myself after a particularly righteous sneeze.

If I were on Twitter, I think I'd start a hashtag (with kudos to Lois McMaster Bujold) #atadtoosocialized.


-- Mal

It occurs to me that there are children being born right now whose parents were born in this century.

That means that Millennials are parents now.
That means that Millennials are no longer the latest generation.

What shall we call the new one?

For those of us who remember vinyl 45s, what are some of your favorite B-Sides (you know, the song that wasn't supposed to be a hit)? A lot of good music on the flip side.

One of many: Kiss Me, Baby (Beach Boys, B-side of "Help Me, Rhonda," 1965)



-- Mal

Did your POW make it back?

They were pretty common when I was in High School, albeit mostly among the girls.


-- Mal