Large Fierce Mammal

An only slightly fanciful rendering of our arrival. (Artist Eddie Bennun) Click for a grander view.

It is quite rightly said that the best way to hear the Gods laugh is to speak one’s plans aloud, and that Great Truth was amply demonstrated by what ensued after these words appeared here on the first day of Dark Sentiments Season 12:

“I must tell you however that this season will be a temporary departure from our customary Dark Sentiments format wherein a sentiment appeared here nightly for each of the 31 days of October. Rather, and due to the all consuming demands of moving the LFM place of residence lock, stock, barrel, and Fortress of Solitude, our further utterances for this 12th Season will appear here on 8, 15, 22, 29, and 31 October 2021. Please stay tuned!”

From there we made it to 15 October and the promised Day 3 before the general shortfall extant in these Lands well known to afflict Loyalty, Honour, and the Swearing of Oaths laid its limp, wet, self-absolving hand upon the enterprise, and what was mapped out to be a well oiled machine by people who devise and execute far more complicated projects for a living inexorably devolved into an all consuming vortex that ate up every human resource and waking second to bring off at the eleventh hour of the time allotted.

In all of that, something had to give and this year’s literary form of Dark Sentiments had to be set aside in favour of Mrs. LFM and me swearing mighty oaths of an entirely different kind. I would add though that we do not regard this unfortunate collateral damage as any form of failure, but rather successful discovery of another method of accomplishing a month long artistic engagement that doesn’t work.

Not to worry. Here is some fallout from our October saga for you to enjoy and reflect upon.

A Song of Migration — Stave 1

By LFM

What trail we chose to travel ere we reached our place of rest
Was as free from public knowledge as the cards held close to vest.
The why, the where, the when, the how, and whither did we go?
Get used to disappointment, it’s all strictly need to know.

A Song of Migration — Stave 2

By LFM

Life is made of choices
To prioritize and weigh,
And matters to be sorted,
Be they kept or cast away.

Change will offer three of these
As here you will have heard —
The first is Die, the next Adapt,
And Migrate is the third.

Long and deep we studied,
Weighed those options quite a while —
Adaptation has its limits,
And just dying’s not our style.

So we came to choose Migration,
Its fruition come to pass.
Not for keeping up with Jones’s
Nor the colour of the grass.

More safe and sound, more snug and warm,
More adequately spacious,
More of what we crave is here,
But nothing ostentatious.

A Cozy Little Place (Source here). Click to enbiggen.