Trev locked the door and turned off his comm. He took off his shirt and neatly folded it upon the bed. In unshod feet, clean and pedicured as always, he walked to the picture window and placed a single thorn flower before the silent unjudging cosmos. Kneeling, he bowed his head, and with blurry eyes unblinking and chest broad, plunged a scalpel into this torso. He thought he would cry out. He thought he would have regrets. Instead, as if he had performed the act daily, he removed the silver instrument, and carefully placing it on one side of the flower, gently laid his head on the other. As a river at night reflects the stars above, a sparkling ribbon of crimson snaked around the flower and kissed his still lips. The stars blinked as they did before.Monday, October 15, 2007
362. Thorn Flower
Trev locked the door and turned off his comm. He took off his shirt and neatly folded it upon the bed. In unshod feet, clean and pedicured as always, he walked to the picture window and placed a single thorn flower before the silent unjudging cosmos. Kneeling, he bowed his head, and with blurry eyes unblinking and chest broad, plunged a scalpel into this torso. He thought he would cry out. He thought he would have regrets. Instead, as if he had performed the act daily, he removed the silver instrument, and carefully placing it on one side of the flower, gently laid his head on the other. As a river at night reflects the stars above, a sparkling ribbon of crimson snaked around the flower and kissed his still lips. The stars blinked as they did before.
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9 comments:
Wow! That fractal is amazingly beautiful!
& that scene is like a ripple in the cosmos...just a ripple...
The stillness of Trev & the blinking of stars merges beautifully reflecting the 'scheme of things'
A loss of Life is a huge loss . It makes such a huge difference in the cosmos. It might appear the same, but it is not the same, without that one speck of life, it changes to something else...
Mona, thanks for the kind words on the image. I hope I like it as much tomorrow as I do today.
This chapter has so much going on in so few words I think I need time to digest all that happened. I like the blinking of stars, same as before, as if they are watching over him, and in their wisdom know that life and death are but labels we give to a greater understanding we do not have.
Thank you for your very kind words on the image and the story. Always appreciated my dear friend. :-)
I was not expecting this. Not sure what to say, yet, other than wow.
I wasn't expecting this either. I was in shock when it happened. I'm still in shock. I was thinking about Trev just this morning when the news came. I think I'm still in denial.
Good Monday afternoon to you, Tree,
Suicide freaks me out. I've seen too much of it coming into the emergency room when I was a volunteer - it's the emotional pain behind it that always rouses such deep pity in me - and oftentimes the physical damage is permanent, although the person may live, it isn't a better life... And they carry their 'failure' with them afterwards, the 'couldn't even do that right' self-hatred......
I know it is ludicrous, but I kept wanting to rub my eyes and read it again in the hope that somehow this torso could relate to the head of the flower, that it would have some symbolic meaning to him that would mean inserting a scalpel would be something he would have some reason to do and that this type of flower would secrete crimson liquid providing a sort of (visual) relief of some kind, like cutting. Sigh. I know, nonsensical, but to see Trev this way was just too much to take in.
I know the words are there, but I'm having the same type of reaction that I would have to such shocking news in life, I'm feeling the need to have you spell it out.
The writing was full of beauty, gentle, though the event was stark, in the same way that a scene from a film depicting something undesired might be accompanied by a beautiful piece of music, soothing, yet dramatic, blending two such opposing elements and in doing so somehow it serves to make each all the more faithful to itself.
I could write extensively on the sadness of this event, enough of that for one day though. :-)
Happy evening ahead, sweet stuff, anxiously awaiting more on Trev's fate.
Things are not always as they seem. Follow the etymology of torso. :-)
Oh, what powerful imagery. It tugs at all the senses at once, evoking a dichotomy of wrenching emotions. I'm intrigued by your cryptic comment, "Follow the etymology of torso." We shall see ... what we shall see.
SJ, this is one of those short chapters that I just love. Easy to read, quick to read, but deep as a well. As always, thanks for your kind words. :-)
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