Quelling of the Orange Roughy - A Short Poetic Thriller

Chapter 1 – The Mysterious Unknown

It was a pale blue Sunday

when the walls began to tremble

and heave in and out.

The earth shuddered,

trembled convulsively

beneath a dark portentous

threat.

This Pale Blue Sunday

rendered steadily into murky yellow

until dark strands of orange

knocked at the windows –

shattering the quiet with

with crazy malevolence;

legs of oozing orange

beginning to pour down

the soft candle lit walls.

“The Orange Roughey!”

whispered the air.

Scared awake,

tumult throwing them

from sweet dreams,

Cochma and Binah

shuddered together,

embraced,

feeling the ancient

vibration

roar and tunder

above the covers.

Married for over

900 years

the couple

embraced in the dark

each resting

and finding comfort

in the knowledge

of the other.

Under the covers,

between the two,

grew a bright illumination

bonding the couple

in their mysterious,

hundreds-year-old,

embrace.

The entire

undercover cavern -

warmed by their

brilliant illumination -

returned to its former

Eden;

a radiant glow;

a secret unto itself.

Chapter 2 – Creation

With an ebb and flow

of cool, crisp attention

Cochma rocked from side to side,

from front to back,

and sometimes in jagged rotation

as he transmuted

The Orange Roughy’s

wild abrasive malevolence

into a soothing, warm undulating current.

Cochma,

in all his wisdom,

knew what he had to do.

In raw reception

Cochma began to tame

the wicked vibration that

ruptured forth

from the

Orange Roughy.

A taming flow of warm energy

filled the cavern below the covers

as he captured wave upon wave

of ragged sensation

treating each

with measured wisdom.

As they had always done -

it seemed as if forever by now -

Binah reached out in tender embrace

gathering the now ragged Cochma

in her warmth and understanding.

With adept mastery,

Cochma’s wisdom

danced lovingly with Binah’s understanding

calming the howling flow

into a warming glow.

This is how the brilliance returned

to their undercover paradise.

In the lovers’ gaze

grew the bright illumination.

Their wisdom and understanding

once again

bonding them in holy matrimony.

Chapter 3 – Daat

As couples do,

each with their own history -

entwined together with shared union –

malevolence was at once captured

then contained

birthing an illumination -

a perfectly coated tincture

worthy of creation -

and capable of saving

their small township.

No words passed that morning

between Cochma and Binah.

Only a deeply shared knowing.

Chapter 4 – In Committee

All day

malevolence battered the town.

Towns men and women

scurried from cottage to cottage

in search of safety;

but each wall shook,

the floors rocking –

sometimes tossing clay plates

from a shelf

all the way across the room;

or propelling wooden dressers,

flying across an entire undulating room.

Weary from deepening distress

the towns men and women

called for a meeting.

“The Orange Roughy

cannot be contained!”

Cried one.

“Doom has befallen us!”

wailed another.

“The end is near!”

chanted a

frightened chorus.

Enraptured in their

Illumination

Cochma and Binah

Took to the tattered alter -

Followed by an

Enterouge of

Illumination dancing

upon a warm, rounded stone.

Silence blanketed

rhe room –

a wave of awe rippled

from eyes to eyes;

from heart to heart;

and across the limbs

of the beleaguered townsfolk.

Malevolence blowing in the windows,

painted fingers of oozing, dripping orange

flowed down the walls.

While Cochma and Binah -

hand within hand -

circled the warmly lit stone.

“I love it!” howled the crier.

“It’s a goodness!”

blessed a woman,

“It isn’t of this earth!”

croaked an old man

as he chewed on

the dirty stub of an

odorous cigar.

Two camps arose

that evening

as the sun set.

Behind the clouds

Of the darkening sky

encroaching fear

knocked at the doorway

to each mans’ heart.

.

The Chesed of

Blessed Promise

filled with possibility

and love

formed a camp

to the East.

And the Gevarim,

who shuddered

in their skins

as if drowning in

fear

stayed hidden to the west

as if death were at the door.

Between the camps

Cochma and Binah

Resided in their knowing

skin aglow

from the illuminated stone.

Another petulant battle cry

Rang from without

shaking the floors and

sending orange fingerlings

of hate and ire

once again down the walls.

Both camps drew close

to the huddled

Chochma, Bina and

Daat –

the illuminated stone

of what was now known –

and shared.

Discourse began to simmer,

then bubble as

waves of perspective

wafted throughout the room.

Each camp softening

as optimism waltzed with discernment;

the fearful chorus began

stepping with possibility;

the town crier

embracing love.

Beauty was discovered that night

as the many-sided discourse –

the Chesed and Gavurim –

joined in a still greater matrimony

of resolve.

First the cigar smoking

Croaker snubbed his smelly stub

as he met eye to eye

with the Blessed Woman of love.

And what was born

but a second illuminated stone.

In an awestruck glance

they exchanged a quiet touch,

and then faced whoever

Sat near.

One by one

Illuminated stones

began to fill the room

as bond upon bond

birthed yet more light.

Growing illumination

spread across the splintered

wood floor,

among the shattered plates

and coated oozing orange fingerlings

until they each became translucent

giving way to a grandly

illuminated cottage

resting brightly

on solid ground.

Chapter 5 –Illuminated Stone

The day of the “Orange Roughy”

went down in the Town Chronicle

as

“The Day of the Illuminated Stone”.

Carts once again clattered along the dusty streets

and merchants nodded to one another as they

set up their booths in the town square.

Yet nothing was as it was before.

The sun shone brighter in the sky;

the leaves of the trees

shimmered magically as if lit from within -

from tip to trunk;

and from trunk to tip.

The town,

and its people,

took on a freshness

behind their eyes -

of inner light and brightness

as though each held

and illuminated stone within their heart.

All was the same

in the town,

yet somehow better.

and all silently knew that to be true.

Epilogue

Cochma and Bina too

were the same

and yet also changed.

Behind their eyes

as they lie under the covers

they shared their special bond –

the same bond they had shared

for some 900 years.

Resting in the wisdom and

understanding that drew them so close

it was a known ‘good’ that they had done on the

“Day of Illumination”.

They knew too that

a great ‘goodness’ spread

throughout the towns gentle souls.

They also knew,

that in this town

they were no longer alone.

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Hope you had a fun read!

Caio!

Jenifer Zetlan

You can read more about how to interpret this story from the book The Incredible Power of Inspiration by Mango Publishing. Available on Amazon.

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Jenifer Zetlan, author of The Incredible Power of Inspiration: Creating the Life You Yearn For, is a behavioral scientist and motivational speaker who helps people live inspired lives. With advanced degrees in psychology and behavioral sciences from UCLA, she has led numerous seminars and classes in psychology, leadership and organization in University settings and throughout many Fortune 500 and non-profit organizations. She has also enjoyed successful careers in psychology, aerospace, and heath care.

Jenifer has been reading, studying and speaking in the areas of psychology, philosophy and spirituality for over 30 years. She is an ardent yoga practitioner and instructor in the Bay Area.