Riddle


Written for Manon and Kali.


Zara is unreasonable; Stock in incorrigible. Zara is irritable; Stock is irrational. Zara snaps; Stock laughs.

He teases her sometimes by calling her 'Muse', and she retaliates by calling him 'idiot'. They are for-ever engaged in a battle: Zara is circling, and Stock is leaning against the wall to protect his back. Neither one is changeable, and reconciliation is impossible.

Zara, scratchcat Zara, flamehaired Zara, angry Zara is angrily in love with Florian (Florian is the exceptional third). Stock, poet Stock, dreamblinded Stock, ridiculous Stock is ridiculously in love with Zara (Florian is the exceptional third). (Florian is the exceptional third: no one knows who he loves)

Stock could be a phoenix. Zara could be a dragon. They are two mythical creatures locked together eternally because they drive each other mad, and in the midst of their double sets of sparks (one beautiful, one bitter-tongued) they climb in a sky that isn't truly there, arguing for days.

Really his poetry isn't wonderful. Really her sharp retorts are crueller than she intends. The others laugh at them (Florian is the exceptional third: he only laughs sometimes) because the others can't tell when she doesn't mean it and he does. The bright fighting is a riddle that can only be solved half the time.

Stock is glowing; Zara is glowering. Stock is impossible; Zara is unbearable. Stock blows kisses; Zara mocks.

(Florian is the exceptional third)

One day he writes a poem about her and calls her a dragon, but she refuses to call him a phoenix. 'Idiot', she says. He leans against the wall. Ridiculous Stock is ridiculously in love with Zara, and she could be a dragon, bitter-tongued. Really, though, his poetry isn't wonderful--but she didn't intend him to feel the insult as sharply as he did.

They don't live long enough to solve the riddle.

Zara is disagreeable; Stock is disarming. Stock is sanguine; Zara is sarcastic. Zara strikes out; Stock dodges neatly--Stock wrote poetry about love; Zara might have said she was sorry.

Double sets of sparks: they don't live long enough to solve the riddle.

Zara is unreasonable; Stock in incorrigible. Zara is irritable; Stock is irrational. Zara snaps; Stock laughs.


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