In The Desert - Stephen Crane

In The Desert - Stephen Crane

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter – bitter”, he answered,
“But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.”

When I read this I had a twang in the ol' brain housing group: I've read that before.

Likely in high school, where the motto is "We'll pound literature into their pointy heads even though they will have no idea what it's really about." You can tell people about Big Ideas and that's a good thing - but unless they have some depth to their character - some experience - they won't really get what you're going on about.

I know that I, at least, had no idea what in the hell Crane was going on about when I was fifteen. I've knocked around a bit since then, seen the creature, chomping away and really getting into it. Yum, yum.

I may have - now and again - been that creature.

Yum, yum!