Today is Sunday, the 27th of September 2026.
Twenty-Five, the tawny owl, woke up in the evening and found himself surrounded by the nine little red birds.
Did you notice that we passed the abandoned City of Centralia last week on our journey, our caravan to wherever we are going, wherever you are leading us, Twenty-Five, our leader, our guru? the red birds asked.
Kind of, the owl yawned. Mostly noticed the blocked streets and the smoke. But it looks like we got away unharmed. And I am glad that you did not bring up the name of the city last week. Would have been the first time one of our growing group was giving away one answer to the on-going city-song-quiz.
Weren't you afraid of the Centralia mine fire? the penguins asked.
The what? the chicks wanted to know.
The Centralia mine fire, the nine little red birds said, a coal-seam fire that has been burning in the labyrinth of abandoned coal mines underneath the borough of Centralia, Pennsylvania, United States, since at least May 27, 1962. Its original cause and start date are still a matter of debate. It is burning at depths of up to 300 feet over an 8-mile stretch of 3,700 acres. At its current rate, it could continue to burn for over 250 years. Due to the fire, Centralia was mostly abandoned in the 1980s. There were 1,500 residents at the time the fire is believed to have started, but as of 2017 Centralia has a population of 5 and most of the buildings have been demolished. Our grandmother told us all about it. She used to live there almost sixty years ago, before it got too hot.
Men invented fire, the fourteen speak-no-evil-monkeys exclaimed, and they released it on nature.
I don't think that men invented fire, said the tawny owl, still yawning. They found it and they learned how to use it. But sometimes it gets out of control and cannot be extinguised for over 300 years.
Men are no Gods, they are Devils, exclaiming continued, by the six hear-no-evil-monkeys this time. They do invent and create only things to destroy nature.
Remember what David DeKok wrote in Unseen Danger: A Tragedy of People, Government, and the Centralia Mine Fire in University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986, the twenty-eight see-no-evil-monkeys added, 'This was a world where no human could live, hotter than the planet Mercury, its atmosphere as poisonous as Saturn's. At the heart of the fire, temperatures easily exceeded 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Lethal clouds of carbon monoxide and other gases swirled through the rock chambers.
That sounds like Hell. Don't Devils live in Hell? Aren't men your cousins? the chicks asked the monkeys. Aren't men your family?
But the monkeys had returned to doing what they could do best, see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.
Will the Centralia Mine Fire burn our whole world?, all the chicks squeeked all alarmed.
Not tonight, said the fourteen hens trying hard to mother them chicks. And not tomorrow. As it has been for countless years, we will fall asleep tonight and wake up with the rising sun tomorrow.
The Sun, Twenty-Five, the little tawny owl, mumbled to himself, the great ball of fire in the sky. Or as Rumi once said, 'I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.'
And twenty-seven water buffaloes joined the nineteen oxen, the eleven hippopotamuses, the three rhinoceros, the twenty-six deer, the eighteen other horses, the ten leopards, the two more tigers, the twenty-five normal cats, the seventeen more dogs, the nine poodles, the one assistance dog, the twenty-three guide dogs, the fifteen orangutans, the seven gorillas, the thirty thirsty monkeys, the twenty-two dragons, the fourteen hens, the six unicorns, the twenty-eight horses, the twenty zebras, the twelve frogs, the four pandas, the twenty-seven koalas, the twenty bears, the nineteen hares, the eleven hamsters, the three mice, the twenty-three wild boars, the fifteen pigs, the thirty cows, the twenty-two raccoons, the fourteen foxes, the six giraffes, the twenty-nine tigers, the twenty-three lions, the fifteen face-cats, the seven wolves, the thirty dogs, the twenty-two face-monkeys, the fourteen speak-no-evil-monkeys, the six hear-no-evil-monkeys, the twenty-eight see-no-evil-monkeys, the twenty astro-cats, the twelve hipster-cats, the four dragon cats, the twenty-seven hacker cats, the nineteen stunt cats, the eleven ninja-cats, the three pouting cats, the twenty-six crying cats, the eighteen weary cats, the ten kissing cats, the two cats with wry smiles, the twenty-four smiling cats with heart-eyes, the sixteen cats with tears of joy, the eight grinning cats with smiling eyes, the thirty-one grinning cats, the twenty-three spiders, the fifteen scorpions, the seven ladybugs, the twenty-nine bees, the twenty-one ants, the thirty crickets, the twenty-two mosquitoes, the fourteen caterpillars, the six snails, the twenty-six butterflies, the eighteen bats, the ten more chicks, the two chicks, the twenty-five chicks, the seventeen penguins, the nine little red birds, and the one little tawny owl…
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"Bromford Is A Woman"
Bromford City spread herself before you
With her bangles and her spangles and her stars
You were impressed with the city so undressed
You had to go out cruising all the bars
Your business trip extended through the weekend
Suburban boy here for your first time
From the 27th floor above the Midtown roar
You were dazzled by her beauty and her crime
And she's every girl you've seen in every movie
Every dame you've ever known on late night TV
In her steam and steel is the passion you feel
Endlessly
Bromford is a woman, she'll make you cry
But to her you're just another guy
Look down and see her ruined places
Smoke and ash still rising to the sky
She's happy that you're here but when you disappear
She won't know that you're gone to say goodbye
And she's every girl you've seen in every movie
Every dame you've ever known on late night TV
In her steam and steel is the passion you feel
Desperately
Bromford is a woman, she'll make you cry
But to her you're just another guy
"Bromford"
I know there is a place for us
I'll find it in between your thighs
Of that I'm sure
Bromford is not far from there
I wish you knew the way to go
But I won't stop
And I can't see you smile
I feel so blind
I close my eyes
And dream of a foreign tide
Then dive
The words once told by Critias
Breathe through the walls
Of this undersea passageway
The Utopia becomes a song
The whispered sounds that led me on
Turn loud and strong
Cause when I close my eyes
The water thrives
My teardrops dry
I can feel I'm close to your heart
This time
The waves they come to me
The waves they flow with me
They come to take me down
Will I ever reach the light?
Will it be easy to survive this tide?
Or woll I have to drown for the rest of my life?
If I could then I would
And I'd love you for all time
I love you for all time
For many years I've been so lost
And now I have the chance to find
Uncharted sands
The drowned ones sing victorious
As I'm about to join them in demersal grounds
And I still have no plan for the way out
I close my eyes
And dream of your foreign tide
Then dive
I know there is a place for us
I'll find it in between your thighs
Of that I'm sure
Bromford is not far from there
I wish you knew the way to go
But I won't stop
And I can't see you smile
I feel so blind
I close my eyes
And dream of a foreign tide
Then dive
The words once told by Critias
Breathe through the walls
Of this undersea passageway
The Utopia becomes a song
The whispered sounds that led me on
Turn loud and strong
Cause when I close my eyes
The water thrives
My teardrops dry
I can feel I'm close to your heart
This time
The waves they come to me
The waves they flow with me
They come to take me down
Will I ever reach the light?
Will it be easy to survive this tide?
Or woll I have to drown for the rest of my life?
If I could then I would
And I'd love you for all time
I love you for all time
For many years I've been so lost
And now I have the chance to find
Uncharted sands
The drowned ones sing victorious
As I'm about to join them in demersal grounds
And I still have no plan for the way out
I close my eyes
And dream of your foreign tide
Then dive
