Velociworld

POWDER BURNS

I believe I can mention powder burns here, and get all manner of feedback. The pistola backfired. The cordite hung thick. It is said a full broadside from a man of war would actually stun the air with the report and smoke, sails going limp, vessels falling off the wind. We shot 200 rounds and our hands were cordially powderburned.

Aye. The old burn of gunpowder. Gunpowder is ancient. Goes back to the Chinee some 1,100 years ago. I suppose many a young Chinaman had his fingers powderburned tetching off the dragon for the lunar new year.

Then there is land battle. Waterloo. Pickett's Charge. The Somme. Stalingrad. I would reckon many many a man has awakened with that smell in his nostrils. I was powder burned, I was. That's how close I was, sonny.

But I would submit another cruel powder burn exists. Not gunpowder, but face powder. The stunning blow of being attracted like a stag to jarred piss, only to be blown away, rejected. Now THAT'S a strange and unusual smell. The smell of defeat in a 12 or 13 year old boy's nostrils.

We are experiments, lads. Cultures in petri dishes, grown for the amusement of the fair sex. The good news is most of us figure it out at about the age of 13 or 14, and learn to play along, lest we miss out on the occasional Hump the Petri Dish Moment. And I must say Kiss the Petri Dish is nice as well. But the thought of all that agar in my mouth is rather revolting. Sets the stage for spoot though, don't it?

But I was actually speaking of the youngster era, when a girl could really hurt a boy. Just with powder burns. The rest was just speculation anyhow. Nothing hurt more than a mere rejection of a handholding, right? Hell, I would suffer a dozen rejections in my twenties for flaccidity than to suffer one handholding rejection at 12.

Of course, this is all surmise on my part. I merely speak for my generation. I've never experienced the powder burn of a young girl, have I? No. I did not. We shall not speak of latter day flaccidity, either. That was an antibiotic reaction, damn it.

And so, in the interest of this post, and the topic, I was forced to sniff my fingers before I hit PUBLISH!

Smelled like powder burns. And by the way, as coincidence, gunpowder was invented in the Tang Dynasty. Wheels within wheels, eh?