ShopDreamUp AI ArtDreamUp
Deviation Actions
Literature Text
The clock strikes one:
On the mantelpiece
A line of cards facing a room
Full of discarded wrapping
Warmth
A family of chatter overwhelms the chime;
In the church tower
Fresh holly hangs on the church door
The last worshippers exit
Faith
Bar one, praying silently through each booming strike;
Down the alleyway
Nameless rags heaped in the corners
Peals seep through the shadows
Echoes
The crying bells overwhelm one beggar’s last breath.
On the mantelpiece
A line of cards facing a room
Full of discarded wrapping
Warmth
A family of chatter overwhelms the chime;
In the church tower
Fresh holly hangs on the church door
The last worshippers exit
Faith
Bar one, praying silently through each booming strike;
Down the alleyway
Nameless rags heaped in the corners
Peals seep through the shadows
Echoes
The crying bells overwhelm one beggar’s last breath.
Literature
Fine Print
With all apologies to Mr. Vonnegut.
So it goes.
No one knows that it was a coincidence that Adam caused the apocalypse a year before the world ended in 2008, and that’s because everyone’s dead now. That’s part of the world ending. Here’s how it happened.
In 2007, Adam heard about Kurt Vonnegut’s death on a Sunday News program. In about two minutes, the program had neatly and concisely summed up the writer’s life and the details of his death, then cut to commercial. Adam had never read any of Vonnegut’s books or even heard of him before, but he was intrigued.
The next day, Adam went d
Literature
antebirth
antebirth
I. the thump of my
blood began as a nervous twitch
flinching up one vein,
capped like a straw, and pressured
without an end, just a thimble of blood
beating on a string
II. my body hair comes next,
little buoys on a sea of skin,
struggling to build distance
III. from the embryo
Literature
Teachers to the Dead
While we slept,
you strapped your arm around
my chest like armor and possession,
like ‘this one belongs to me.’ Together, we are
teaching the things that haunt us
to lie down in their graves.
Here, like this
your demons say to mine as
they demonstrate the art of behaving.
Together, we secure their
broken bodies and set them into six feet of
downward motion.
(but we do not follow
we cannot go in their stead)
They do not know they’re dead. It’s
always a blow when we break the news.
They find themselves jealous of our
human skin and our inhaling
exhal
Suggested Collections
For some reason I've had the thought of using "tick tock" bothering me.
I don't want to use it, as I can't imagine being anything like original* by doing so.
This is my attempt to divert the thought into something more useful.
*Not that I think this is very original.
I don't want to use it, as I can't imagine being anything like original* by doing so.
This is my attempt to divert the thought into something more useful.
*Not that I think this is very original.
Comments29
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
This is beautiful! I stand in awe of your talent and openness to criticism. Each time I re-read it I'm more amazed; you're making me smile for the sheer joy of savoring such a lovely piece!
I particularly like how the first line of each verse places the reader somewhere, as a sort of involved yet detached observer. And you did a wonderful job of making the last line of each verse slide into the next while retaining its place. For example, in line 6 it somehow struck me that the chime seemed rather forlorn, thus the transition to the next verse and connection to the previous.
I can only hope that someday I'll approach the quality of this poem. Congrats on the DD!
I particularly like how the first line of each verse places the reader somewhere, as a sort of involved yet detached observer. And you did a wonderful job of making the last line of each verse slide into the next while retaining its place. For example, in line 6 it somehow struck me that the chime seemed rather forlorn, thus the transition to the next verse and connection to the previous.
I can only hope that someday I'll approach the quality of this poem. Congrats on the DD!