Memory with Cruelty

Memory with Cruelty

A Story by Ken Simm.
"

Ireland 1968

"

 

Three boys sitting on a dry stone wall on an island off the coast of western Ireland in the summer of 1968.

A dry stone paddock on a cliff edge. The Atlantic side of the island. Green sea below and large
breakers on large rocks. The smell and the sound of it. Hot in the sunshine.

One boy is crying, one is throwing rocks towards the cliff edge but not quite reaching. The final
boy is picking small stones from amongst the seagull droppings on the wall.

Two large men without shirts and red flesh, walk up the hill behind the ruined crofter’s cottage
near the paddock. One man carries a dirty, soiled pink saddle strap.

The paddock wall has been damaged in several places. There is a large hole in the wall on the
cliffward face. Several of the larger stones have been displaced along the top of the wall.

A number of seagulls float, parallel with the top of the cliff.

The broken body of a skewbald horse lies at the bottom of the cliff, its head moving slowly,
delicately in the white and green water. The waves slowly turning pink.


 


 

© 2009 Ken Simm.


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Will the boys grow to think this is acceptable behaviour?
The gulls float on silently.
Cruelty to anyone or thing should be intolerable by all. Those that look on and do nothing are just as guilty as the perpertrator.
So much said with so little words.
A heavy saddness

Posted 17 Years Ago


2 of 2 people found this review constructive.

Tony Jordan

7 Years Ago

Vallerie he hasn't changed a bit - still ignoring his readers ... (joking) hi and good lunchikins Ke.. read more



Reviews

Image: Almost Clear.
Some learn to resist--and, eventually, eradicate--such cruelty, others merely continue to reinforce their inhuman behavior.
Devastating account, Ken!

Posted 7 Years Ago


Ken Simm.

7 Years Ago

Many thanks Jimmy.
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Gee
Now this is what I aspire to when writing, probably never get there but no harm trying. I could easily be sitting up there with them, ignorant to the cruelty, wrapped up in a carefree mind.

Posted 7 Years Ago


Ken Simm.

7 Years Ago

True story unfortunately. Was one of the snot noses on the wall. I'd just been riding the colts moth.. read more
Gee

7 Years Ago

As sad as it was, it was still a pleasure to read. Hopefully you, like me, have more good than bad m.. read more
Ken Simm.

7 Years Ago

Good and bad, never actually counted but thanks for asking. Experience and all grist for the mill. H.. read more
Those same boys these days would think nothing of dying the whole ocean with human red cells these days Ken.
My dad said once that "The troubles begat organized crime and drugs and that has stolen the heart of Ireland like the British never could."
S**t this is heart-wrenching.

Posted 7 Years Ago


Tony Jordan

7 Years Ago

Wow - was that a Gaeltacht?
Our teachers handed out corporal punishment with those straps lol.. read more
Ken Simm.

7 Years Ago

It was a trip with school. The favourite punishment of one of my teachers was a bunsen burner pip wi.. read more
Ken Simm.

7 Years Ago

Meant pipe not pip although......
A poignant story; illustrative of the fact that human cruelty can crop up (lousy pun not intended) unexpectedly--is happening, constantly.
Look around, the world is slowly turning pink!
Excellent work, Ken!

Posted 12 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

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...
. i cannot comprehend this cruelty ... i cannot comprehend any cruelty ... it makes no sense to me and i don't understand how it can make sense to anybody ... how can anyone inflict such suffering ? ... how do they justify it to themselves ? ... do they not know what they'll do to the waves before they do it ? ...

Posted 12 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

A masterpiece painted in words. I know, I've written that about your writing before. Somehow, however ever simple the background or situation you write about, you turn it into something outside our world .. a view from a vantage point in place or time.

You've shown the reader the scene and the performers and, the finale is just heart-breaking, heart-breaking. My thoughts are that creature was loved by the boys, maybe was their family's most valuable possession.. don't know, we all see things in our own way, that's what makes words so incredibly and magically special.

'The waves slowly turning pink.' - that makes me cry .. a bloody hue, a bloody event.

Posted 15 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

the title is a gate...something is going to happen...no, something already happened...talk about you pictures!

Posted 15 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

A sad story, a sad memory and a tale that stays with a person that sat by near helplessly to do a thing - to look away, to remember - to mourn... this is a kind of rites of passage as well - isn't it? The justice is in the telling.

kath

Posted 16 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

I thought I had read this before. But it seems that was a longer story. This almost seems like poetry. The vivid ending that didn't say the thing, but left us to guess that horror that must have been. Some men shouldn't handle horses, they don't have the good common sense. One went down and broke it's leg and the battlefield last year. It had to be put down. It was avoidable. It didn't have to happen.

The descriptions are somewhat ethereal. As if the narrator is looking down on the boys and the men from somewhere up above. The peacefulness of the boys and the nonchalant actions of the men give a monstrous contrast to the condition of the horse.

Posted 16 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

the image is meticulous, a painting of a real moment; shock and awe ...

Posted 17 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.


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Added on February 10, 2008
Last Updated on January 4, 2009

Author

Ken Simm.
Ken Simm.

Scotland, United Kingdom



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'I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience' Thoreau. For all those who .. more..

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