Decay

rewoked

1. Sometimes a fattened pig will wander off from the pen and find his way to the pond on the edge of the property. If it’s dark or foggy, he may fall in and sink to the bottom. Only later when his carcass has filled with methane and mucous will he float to the surface.  You’ll know he’s been in the water for a while when you see the bloat, the blisters oozing, and the skin sloughing off in large sheets. Don’t go there.

 

2. Ok. So you didn’t listen. You went ahead and fetched a stick and poked. And you were taken aback by how just easily it slid through his tissues, like the time when that pigeon alighted on your hand, and you were startled by how it weighed almost nothing at all.  And just to see what might come of it, you wiggled the stick, and suddenly what was left of the liver and kidneys popped up onto the surface and spit a stream of water into your mouth. They drifted towards you and away again, like your lost toy sailboat, the one that got off the string and floated down the rapids in Lucerne.  Over the falls it went, under the covered bridge, and that was the end.

 

3. And so now you sit back and watch the world unraveling. But you know it all started long ago. Sailboats were never recovered.  Pigeons became leaden, your best friend administered his final overdose, your father lost his mind. Your children grew up too quickly, developed autisms and cancers. And suddenly you had grown old.

Reviews

[The Rock And Roll Cowbo..]

Life certainly passes us by quickly... we get so caught up in the mundane things that we forget to enjoy the pulse pounding moments till it is too late.