The graveyard shift

     Before them the land stretches out, grey and surreal. It's a desolate place but glimmering beneath the barren, wasted soil lies a dark purity, terrible yet beautiful. The mist toiling up from the valley beneath sends scouting tendrils crawling to the lip of the hill. Soon every gem of earth will be obscured and every footstep made perilous but they stagger onward, blind with grief and tears and senseless to all sense.

     That's what kind of place this is. A call lingers in its bare scene, singing to those bereft of reason, to the lonely, to the souls with less to live for than this futile fen has to offer. It gathers them. It welcomes them with the smooth slender arms of night and bids them leave their troubles with the heart of day.

     They follow the moon's scent of silver into the bleak, enveloping fog, soon to join the lost, browned bones that claim them as friends in death.

     That's what kind of place this is. It's the graveyard only the few will find; those who seek it out. They march towards it day by day, rank and file, and only find it when all else fails, when the sun rises dark and cold, when a child's laugh is shrill and painful to the ear, when every lucious fruit turns to ash and dust at the lips and the future dies when they stop moving.

     This is what happens when you live to work, so work to live instead. Take off your tie at the end of the day and leave it behind you before it chains you to despair. Breathe the clear air of your present before it stagnates and poisons your future and, above all, avoid the monotony we so recklessly pursue. We all follow the money but don't follow it to the grave. In short - work, but don't forget to live.

Author's Note

It's definitely experimental. I was mostly just playing with an image so don't panic if it makes less sense than our current government. Thanks for reading!

Reviews

[J. Rose]

Love the descriptions and especially the message. I think we all forget to live and enjoy life sometimes. Great job with this. Thanks for sharing.

[Tess Nicholls]

Thanks for the review!

[-S.]

It's like your words breathe...
I really like this a lot :)

[Tess Nicholls]

Thanks for reviewing -S. Glad you like it:)

[sansame]

Pretty incredible! And inspiring in a dark way. Love this.

[Tess Nicholls]

Cheers S, thanks for reading.

[Coll Silvermoon]

WOW!!!! I have to admit. I am QUITE impressed. That imagery was SPOT on with the end, and your ending wrapped it all up nicely. It makes perfect sense.

[Tess Nicholls]

Hi Coll, thanks for the review! So glad someone liked it:)

[Coll Silvermoon]

Keep writing, you have me HOOKED!