e. a. poe.....

ok, so.....i settled in on the back deck with a glass of wine and the unread new yorker after a mind-dulling week of meetings and trainings....sunshine, stimulating prose and reporting on a friday after-noon.....wow...what more can one ask for in this life.....and so i tucked into the piece on edgar allen poe.....and enjoyed a 35+ year flashback.....about how i was assigned to write a report on mr poe....maybe junior high?..... and having only the world book encyclopedia to use as background material, i taped several quarters to an index card and mailed it to the poe house in baltimore asking for whatever that sum would cover.......i recall getting a brochure about the property, and a few postcards.......and a nice letter from the staff thanking me for my interest...the article reminded me of the edgy terror that poe managed to evoke in so few words.....and then the phone rang....and i darted into the house to answer because my spouse usually calls about this time to avail me of his heading home plans.... and when i came back out to the deck the new yorker was gone.....omg......i shuddered as i peaked over the deck railing......winds tend to sweep printed paper products into the ivy-covered edge of the abyss just beyond the boxwood hedge......a place i do not go cheerfully because there might be snakes....i have not actually seen a snake in this area of our property.....so this could be translated, gentle readers, as akin to fearing that there are monsters under the bed.....but i digress from my new yorker that is inches away from the cliff......and so i mustered my courage and eased out between the boxwood and the shailler's pink provence rose onto the ivy-covered edge of the abyss....and i grabbed the conundrum magazine as well as a seat cushion that blew off the back deck sometime last year....and then crawled back into the safety of the brick path.......perceived danger is ever so powerful...as mr.poe well knew......if he had lived a bit longer into his 40's he just might have come up with another tale of terror called the magazine...... you never know.....