Defiance

The grey, granite block stood testament to their development as a people.

Flashing LED lights, intertwined fiber optics, pressed flat with plasma and

pop-culture posters, presenting to the world entertainment deemed

desirable.

Pouring in their personalities, the people no longer need worry about putting

emotion on display, failing, thinking, feeling, isolation.

Everything they needed to know and wanted to see would be provided.

One rainy, mid-month day, a child with red hair gingerly slipped under the 

barricade, toddled his way towards the towering block. 

Pressing pudgy little fingers onto the screens, the little one smeared and smudged

the images, swirling them into a blurry blotch of nothingness.

A rip, from it a trickle of color, faint echo, and then metallic groan as it turns to 

tear, racing its way up the stony face.  

As it collapses, the caged life surges through the cracks with vibrancy, singing

itself back into the world.

Many fall, too gray-faced and hollow to cope with the wave of emotion cascading

from within the chamber, now crashing upon the shores of surrounding hills.

Amidst the wreckage, the little one fervently paints a picture with the colors of the

World.

Reviews

[Clockwork]

I thought of something like the Rosetta Stone while reading this piece. I had a clear image of something like this standing in Times Square in like 25 years.

It was striking how you showed the connection between the great block of technology and society. With outlets such Facebook being beamed into our homes, I could totally see the inhabitants of their society "Pouring in their personalities," It is as if people decided to live vicariously through the block.

I thought it was a really nice touch to add color to the description of the child. I think that adds a little extra force to the massive societal rearrangement that he does with the block.

Finishing with the idea that life could still be found in this world was great. It showed that those who are still innocent, or those who have not surrendered their life force to the block can still create.

"Amidst the wreckage, the little one fervently paints a picture with the colors of the World." The final line is powerful and filled with possibility, and it provided a great closing.