It's Still Life

At an Intersection Named After an English King and a Saint
Six Sentence Story: Part 32.1

1964: The Nature of Things, Part 1

Cerberus

There’s a crow in the oak – it’s watching the line where the battle broke.

“I don’t know, Grandmother,” I’m in tears; the silent sort that claws, and she turns her back and walks away.

There’s a crow in the oak – a berating clatter, and I look up and shout, “Shut up!” and it calls back with a clash of shields and spear-like sounds …

          …and Grandmother stops, looks up at the crow, and then back at me, “Ah, Brigid,” she smiles, “I forgot your brain is unlike most.”

That crow followed me all summer.

I named it Cerberus … Cerberus, whose spittle is the deadly sap of Wolfsbane, the first plant I learned to identify.

Pierre and Hanzō watch me as I fall into silence; when an old memory escapes its restraint it leaves a deep hole, and Hanzō leans toward me, “The crow was Yatagarasu: the Crow-God; symbol of guidance during important journeys. … Hai, Brigid, you are unlike most.”

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Written for Denise’s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story including the word “Claw”. 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.