Carnival

Mardi Gras . . . Ash Wednesday . . .
"The farewell to flesh.
I dressed in feathers. Pointed beak and glitter.
How we danced, through lights and confetti.
The good-bye to the body.

Not forever, but for now." (66)

~ Carole Maso ~ from AVA ~

[More on The Quotidian Kit]

Mardi Gras ~ Cat Mask ~ Previous Post

"'CARNAGE!,' the headline screamed above a full - color picture of a train carriage that was almost broken in two. Carnage from the Latin caro, carnis, meaning 'flesh,' Same root as carnival. 'The taking away of the flesh.' You couldn't really get two more different words than carnival and carnage. Everywhere -- well, perhaps not everywhere, not in Bangladesh, for example, but certainly in an awful lot of places -- they had some kind of carnival before Lent, but in Britain all you got were pancakes. (171)

"When he woke up, they told him about the train crash again. A nurse showed him the front page of a newspaper. 'CARNAGE!' it said. He couldn't remember what the word meant. Nothing to do with cars, he supposed. . . . It was mere luck that he was alive when others weren't, a momentary lapse in concentration from the Fates that had led to him surviving and not someone else. (182, 310)

"Reggie wanted to say that it was nothing to do with her, but it would have sounded churlish given the circumstances -- carnage, et cetera. (187)

" . . . a wedding ring that strangled your finger . . . Strangled, estranged . . . the words were very similar." (322)

~ Kate Atkinson ~
from When Will There Be Good News?

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P.S.
2023

The Kiss (1870)
Auguste Toulmouche (1829 – 1890)

See also Raoul & Marguerite