146 As the Crow Dies
For Saturday, May 25, Day 146 of the Story-a-Day Challenge
Feed me crow. With a side helping of humble pie. Yes, bird and entrails are what I deserve, garnished with an eye-for-an-eye and gnashed teeth.
Just like cancer cures nicotine addiction, the wisdom of imminent death gives me a final perspective, too late to apply to my life--all done and lived. I can only imagine the joys from such perspective, had it been appreciated before now.
Such clarity would have allowed mid-course corrections, but I sail on autopilot now, with trouble ahead: my crash and burn are inevitable. I did what I did, finally spending all the watts that were allotted to me the day I was born. Now my tungsten flickers, in physiologically legislated mortality.
My life? How I lived?
Right? Wrong? Does it matter? It won't soon. Judgment wanes into irrelevance as I lie on my deathbed where all is finalized, settled once and for all, and then filed away.
So, no, it really doesn't matter. The writing's on the wall while the vigil's at my bedside. The jig is up. Time to take inventory, yes; but also time to realize it's just a review and can't be changed.
My obituary will read,
Died peacefully with loved ones by his side...
But no one dies peacefully. It's a jolt.
Everything's been settled, etched in a book — "My Life" — with the burning, hot, caustic calligraphy carved by my last breaths. Some pages clump together, alluding to times I carried on by rote, unappreciative of life's gifts. Some pages are heavily footnoted, now of historical interest only.
My book is about to be closed forever and put up on a shelf, way high out of reach, to collect the same dust other books do that are way high out of reach--compendia of those who needed mortality to teach them what living is.
That high shelf is a squandered reference section, because few seek its wisdom, until they prepare for their own books' publication. We think of ourselves and our lengths--in days and years--as our shelf-life, but we are naïve: it's the wrong shelf!
My new wisdom puts me at peace, sending me home, freeing me from this corporal jail, now that I've been rehabilitated.
_____________
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
"Ubi dubius, e flagellate" — ancient proverb.
For Saturday, May 25, Day 146 of the Story-a-Day Challenge.
366 WORDS (without A/N)
Title picture was AI-generated-hot, but the plates are not!
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There are currently three surviving Vocal writers still participating in the 2024 Story-a-Day Challenge:
• L.C. Schäfer, challenge originator
• Rachel Deeming
• Gerard DiLeo (some other guy)
Watch them as they squirm and panic as their ideas require more mental effort to keep this insane thing going.
PLEASE SUPPORT THEM BY READING THEIR DAILY SUBMISSIONS
About the Creator
Gerard DiLeo
Retired, not tired. In Life Phase II: Living and writing from a decommissioned church in Hull, MA. (Phase I was New Orleans and everything that entails. Hippocampus, behave!
https://www.amazon.com/Gerard-DiLeo/e/B00JE6LL2W/
Keep reading
More stories from Gerard DiLeo and writers in Fiction and other communities.
145 — My Address to the Virtual Graduates at the University of Phoenix Commencement
Chancellor, faculty, parents, loved ones, and students: Thank you for inviting me as commencement speaker at your university's graduation e-vocation. Imagine my surprise when I learned online about my honored invitation. At first I didn't know, but then I checked my spam bin.
By Gerard DiLeo25 days ago in Fiction
The Rat King!
I awoke to the sound of sharp whining. I opened my eyes and saw my brother standing over me, out of breath from wailing. I opened my mental shutters and let the roar of frogs and crickets from outside flood in like sunlight. This was the third time this week.
By Nick Dehler3 days ago in Fiction
Comments (20)
So much truth in those lines!
Cool work you have here. https://krogarstoresfeedback.com
Superbly penned!!! Congratulations on Top Story!!!❤️❤️💕
I'm with Randy - so many great lines but this one "Now my tungsten flickers, in physiologically legislated mortality." That's greatness there. And yes, squirming and panicking are the staples of my everyday.
So many great lines and phrases, I won't even single them out. Well done and much deserving of the Top Story nod.
Well done love the beginning
Back to say congratulations on your Top Story! 🎉💖🎊🎉💖🎊
a brilliant piece of work- deserving a top story
Your creativity is unmatched! Congrats on TS!!
Congratulations I like the view on this one, reality of finality
Excellent 👍
Congrats on your Top Story!🥳🥳🥳
Excellent work, and glad you see you are still on the Story a day trail
first: congratulations on your TS. now: WOW, EXCELLENT. Makes one think about the life we're living and how we might change it for the better. GREAT writing. BRAVO.
Congrats on your top story.
You compress lifetimes into lines with uncanny dexterity.
Excellent writing - the whole thing. The lines that stood out for me were the ones with calligraphy carved by last breaths and this one "those who needed mortality to teach them what living is." Really, really well done. Congrats on the TS.
"That high shelf is a squandered reference section, because few seek its wisdom, until they prepare for their own books' publication. We think of ourselves and our lengths--in days and years--as our shelf-life, but we are naïve: it's the wrong shelf!" That was so deep! Loved your story!
I am amazed at your consistently perceptive writing and creativity while plotting these stories day after day. You truly possess multitudes, Gerard!
Well-wrought! Death is no end to life, I surmise, but each life a book in a series, a mad epic. ""Everybody is a book of blood; wherever we're opened, we're red." -Clive Barker