It's Still Life

At an Intersection Named After an English King and a Saint
Six Sentence Story: Part 23 A Made Horse Amongst Swords

Last Week … but Pierre knows, we are like mycorrhizae; we are all connected.

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Dr Crowthorne is a silhouette in the open doorway of room B4, sunlight flooding in from the windows behind him, and without moving his eyes away from Pierre, Hanzō thanks the doctor and invites him to lock the door behind him when he leaves.

I’m writing Connor’s curse on white onion skin … letter by letter … in reverse order,

while Hanzō tells Pierre to envision ‘home’, where he grew up … with its seawall-calm harbour, Nordic winter-frozen roads from the headland down to the beach that sips cups of seawater, and Pierre exhales,

“Yes, yes, exactly!” … Hanzō’s face stiffens and he says, “No, Pierre.”

Hanzō speaks so softly that Pierre must lean in close to hear that ‘home’ was the compressed humidity of Marseille, a boy working on trawlers with dripping nets of fish … and that his mind succumbs to suggestion too easily, and that Connor’s curse is a fabricated reality of unswerving malicious intent.

“… the fire was an accident, Pierre, caused by an overload – an excessive electrical load on the circuit,” I read the investigator’s report, Hanzö says.

And he continues, “Be true to your own vision, not that of a jealous ghost … be a river, Pierre, be swift and deep, become the sea, … not a horse mad amongst swords.”

I light the candle … hold the onion skin inked with continuous lines of letters to its flame – it sparks and hisses and rolls in on itself as Connor’s curse rises, a smudged black cloud that dissipates into the sunlight – and as if the sun always shines on lost souls, Pierre’s spirit spills out of this long dream, his eyes clear and full again, and he smiles at Hanzō who is bowing deeply before him … and Pierre asks, “Who are you?”

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Written for Denise’s Six Sentence Story, include the word “dream”. Some artwork is created using Midjourney AI, and is identified as such in the ALT text or captioned. Images are copyright and not to used without permission, which I willingly give when asked, and when not for commercial use. Imagery and poems/prose ©Misky 2006-2024.