Bly, Robert

English

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The Boy Who Had One Thought

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© Providence College  The author(s) permits users to copy, distribute, display, and perform this work under the following conditions: (1) the original author(s) must be given proper attribution; (2) this work may not be used for commercial purposes; (3) the users may not alter, transform, or build upon this work; (4) users must make the license terms of this work clearly known for any reuse or distribution of this work. Upon request, as holder of this work’s copyright, the author(s) may waive any or all of these conditions.  The Prose Poem: An International Journal is produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress) for the Providence College Digital Commons. http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/prosepoems/ THE PROSE POEM: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL  Volume 3 | 1994 The Boy Who Had One Thought  Robert Bly Robert Bly THE BOY WHO HAD ONE THOUGHT Once upon a time there was a boy who entertained one thought only, of protection, and he thought it night and day. It was a green field, with a small river running through it. The boy walked out one day into the wood, and sat down beneath a tree. The wind said, "The setting hen hides her eggs in the grove." The cloud said, "The mother pelican feeds her chicks with her own blood." All at once he lifted up into the tree, and became a leaf; and his own arms became fluted, so that he was enclosed in his own vegetable longing. Meanwhile, the horses below breathed their Mongolian breath, and the guinea hens prepared their alchemical treatises, and the ram and ewes lay down among the stones. And summer breathed itself away. One day teeth came out from the stiffened sand, and crystals clung to the side of the water tank. That night Daddy Long-Legs skated over to the edge of the pond. Now the boy thought his second thought, and fell. 

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The Boy Who Had One Thought

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