Friday, June 10, 2022

2 Minutes. Go!

It is a slow descent. That's what they don't tell you. It's not like you wake up one day ravenous. You take small bites. The anger starts to taste good to you. Fear is a reflector, and you can smell it on people. Everyone is afraid of something.

You start with something small. Stealing tips off a table. Spitting in the communal punch bowl. You can key someone's car - just little 'fuck your day up' shit. If you like the way it settles, you keep going. You pull a wallet from a lady's purse. You start taking things that don't belong to you.

If you stick with this program of gradual escalation, you will, eventually, make it to the big leagues. Your torture and murder - that kind of thing. Manipulation. Emotional theft. These are the fields of discontent you can traipse through. Innocence can be plucked in any season.

Eventually, you will flame out. You will become overconfident or paranoid or both. You will give into your baser instincts. You will develop addictions and other crutches. You will be ruined the way you have ruined others. 

This is your legacy.

10 comments:

  1. Ugh. I just finished crafting a story about an evil in my subconscious...

    There might be Evil afoot...

    Subaru is apparently getting very upset with me regarding my failure to comply with instructions to replace recalled safety features on my Outback.

    They've spent years threatening me with death if I do not effect this repair.

    At various times they've offered:

    ~Free towing to & from the repair location which is 45 miles away.

    ~Free loaner car for my use while being repaired.

    ~Dinner & a movie.

    **************************

    My understanding is that it only affects the passenger airbag.

    I have not had to sign for any of these communications from the maker.

    Additional understanding. Wouldn't this be the perfect opportunity to give someone I don't really care for a ride somewhere (I'm fully insured)...?

    Does this make me a bad person or is it just another item on the list of things that make me a bad person?

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    Replies
    1. This is an interesting internal monologue. I like the *light* darkness at the end. :)

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  2. “You want more?” His voice thundered overhead. “Or are you ready to quit?” He drove a foot into my side, and I curled into an even tighter ball. There was nothing but pain in my world; I could die now and be grateful for the relief.

    “You’ve a lot of stuff for someone who’s a waste of flesh.” I heard him pulling out drawers, emptying them onto the floor, opening cupboards then wrenching off the doors as a further assault on me. He was finished with hurting me directly for the moment; he was destroying everything I owned now. What better way to break someone already too far gone to feel any further pain? I wanted this to be over – oblivion couldn’t come to me soon enough.

    “I know you’re awake. I can sense your defeat. It’s invigorating, like snorting a line but an added twist of despair.” I heard him settle on the only remaining chair in the room, imagining him assessing the remains of everything I’d owned and kept about me. I’d never had much money; that made the things I had more precious to me. I didn’t care that they were cheaply made and that many of them hadn’t been new when I’d got them. Every item had a patina of persistence and grit running through it. That lout could never understand the validity of that. He'd never had to save for the things he needed; he’d only had to ask for anything he wanted, and it would be given to him.

    I could almost feel pity for him. His family had only had property, lots of money and friends in high office. His sister had died of an overdose.

    And then there’d only been him.

    The poor little rich boy had become an only child.

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    Replies
    1. There's not a ton of visual anchors in this one, which works to its advantage. This mindset and conversation could take place in so many contexts, and it leaves the reader curious about the relationship.

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  3. Dust

    A plane tracks tears through the sky,
    flickers of white lines, clouds
    from your eyes reflected in light,
    the angles curve, dust mites skate
    in this endless blue sea of air.

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    Replies
    1. This is a lovely little snapshot. I love the last two lines especially

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  4. June 11 2022

    The web

    Accusations fly. Someone reads down the minutes
    of the meeting. Stories grow leaves, seeds sown.
    Is anyone asking if they are true? The spider
    weaves its sticky web and words walk.
    Years upon years upon years.

    They gain courage backstage, spread thin
    over the walls, into the cracks, seeping through.
    Those on the stage go through the motions
    as lines write themselves upon the floor.
    Words spiral like smoke to fill the air.
    Years upon years upon years.

    Sentences come together in silence.
    Outside, rain collects in the guttering.
    It’s a one-sided view down the avenue.

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    Replies
    1. Again with the strong finale. Part of the reason I don't write a lot of poetry is because I can never nail the last bit like you always do!

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  5. Comment on Dan's piece: I love how it builds. Small bites. Stealing tips. Gradual escalation. And you become what you hate. Damn, that's strong. Icarus always flies too close to the sun.

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    Replies
    1. It’s very good. Very powerful — Vickie

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