Not With a Bang but a Whimper

Author's Note: This piece was inspired by T.S. Eliot's poem The Hollow Men.

The door was rattling.  Girls were crying. People may have been dying.

  The window smashed.  All this happened timelessly.  I was closest to the door.  I would be first. 

He walked in on the disaster of our classroom.  Items were scattered about, thrown out of the way in the panic.  Crossing the room, he crunched on a pen.  Its spring popped out and landed near my feet.  We looked up at him, he looked down at us.  Twenty-six to one, yet the odds were against us.  He  glanced at the trembling Mrs. Ecnelis and crossed over to her. 

“Joe, you didn’t tell me you had a gun.”

“Oh…you’re right.  I should have told you.  WELL MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME THAT YOU WERE SEEING ANOTHER MAN!”

“We weren’t having an affair.  We just ran into each other at the bank and he took me out for coffee.  Then he kissed me.”

“Well then why were you always texting each other?  Huh?”

“Joe, just stop it.  You’ve taken this too far.  I-“

“Enough talk!”  He brought the gun up to her face and fired it.  Girls screamed.

“WHO’S NEXT?!”

He grabbed me and slammed me against the wall.  “Any last words?”

So this is how my world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.

Bang.  The gun went off.  A whimper escaped my lips before they became cold.

Girls cried.  I died.

Couch

My greatest masterpiece.  I have sat on it for years, waiting for this moment, when the perfectly round, deep imprint of my bottom has formed.  I have taken a nail to it many a time, until the last scratch had been completed.  But it is now, in this moment that I have completely completed my great masterpiece.  Finally, the symbol of man has been made.  The couch, man's life, best friend, bed, and dinner table.  Here, I present to you, the fall of humanity.

Imaginary Dreams

Do I dare hope?  Well, a hope perhaps…a timid dream…Do you think-no- no.  Not possible.  No reason to get hopes up.  But perhaps, maybe, a small chance…

I'm not that awful,  you know, he might like me.  Might.  Perhaps.  A small chance.  An imaginary dream.

Take a chance.  No harm.  No foul,

Just a possibility

There's only one way to find out

Try. 

Ask. 

Be strong.

Stay confident.

Cause what you're talkin about, excuse me, but it seems like it was just a little bit more than an imaginary dream.

Sidewalks in Winter

It's winter.  In winter, snow falls and then has to be cleared away.  Unfortunately, a lot of people are procrastinators and refuse to shovel until a week after it has snowed.  This is very inconvenient for anyone who needs to walk on the sidewalk.

 So, the other night, I had to walk home.  It just so happens that there was a blizzard blustering outside.  There was six inches of snow on the ground, but God forbid anyone shovels their sidewalk.  I didn't know I would have to walk home either, so I wasn't wearing snow boots.  I was wearing my definitely-not-water-proof boots.  I had to trudge through the snow as little puddles formed in the heels of my boots.  It was then when I came upon a glorious sight, someone, some miraculous God, had actually shoveled their sidewalk.  I experienced a few moments of lustrous joy before the clear path ended and I walked in front of a different house.

My point is, you should shovel off your sidewalk.  It's bad enough that some children have to walk home in the cold.  Are you really going to make them walk through the snow too?