Fiction logo

...

January 28: Day #28 of a Story-a-Day Challenge

By Gerard DiLeoPublished 3 years ago 2 min read
Follow the bouncing balls... ...

My life is an ellipsis...

I can't make a complete statement, pose a reasonable question, or even serve my sentence. For those, you need verbs. I lack verbs.

Verbs are action words. Without them, a clause is just a phrase; living in phrases is just passing through phases. Empty phases of trendy phrases.

I was asked to tell the truth once, but I couldn't pledge one way or another, for tell and lie are action words. Instead, I dangled modifiers and misplaced adverbs, to imply either fabrication or something vaguely true.

I was asked to put myself second, but I couldn't step behind myself, for step is an action verb, just like sacrifice, endure, and suffer, for anthing or anyone else but myself.

I was asked to defend someone, someone unjustly blamed and punished. I couldn't step up; footwork requires action words. Instead, I danced around issues, side-stepped, evaded; excused myself. And all without verbs; catatonic in abscence seizures.

I was expected to sow what I reaped, but sow is an action word. It is also a noun, and while pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. Not me! I receive and I'm on the take; I sleep when I should awake. I profit at others' expense.

I was called upon to serve once, but serve is an action word. I eschew intransitives, just being, a gerund without an errand. An appositive who's a negative. A negative without polarity; a pole without true north.

I fell in love once, but I couldn't commit; commit is an action word. Instead, I rambled on, in phrases; in phases. Yet, such verbiage is periodic, because phases end with a final stop, just like phrases.

Who needs action? Not me. A dictionary with a million words doesn't contain a complete setence; a thesaurus, a million alternatives, but nothing definitive.

Describe me adjectivally; modify me, diagram me, put me into calligraphy. Dress me in fonts, beyond margins.

Just don't define me.

I am indescribable, ineffable, and incomplete; stuttering, always ending high-pitched, as if in question; and trailing off in profitless expenditures of nonsense... me... I read pleasant, but have nothing to say...

I live on... asyntactically...

MicrofictionSeries

About the Creator

Gerard DiLeo

Retired, not tired. Hippocampus, behave!

Make me rich! https://www.amazon.com/Gerard-DiLeo/e/B00JE6LL2W/

My substrack at https://substack.com/@drdileo

[email protected]

Enjoyed the story? Support the Creator.

Subscribe for free to receive all their stories in your feed. You could also become a paid subscriber, letting them know you appreciate their work.

Subscribe For Free

Reader insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment
    Written by Gerard DiLeo