The Riddle of Tom and Birtha

It is true what they say, those who press onward and upward versus those whom succumb to the pressures that apply onto them…

As a recount, I shall at once admit to my notes that I am not all that I am, nor will be, nor that of wills to be it. I am a simple man full of simple means and pleasures. For my time that is coveted within the shackled dwellings that the hearth gives heat to, I stand alone… or rather chained, as it were. I get bound and allowed three meals a day and have learned to admire the one who enters and feeds me. She has the most kindest of faces. Her eyes dwell upon me without fear or judgment of any kind, and on the occasion, she and I talk for a while. She is now here writing for me, as I had stated, I am bound to a wall and not once allowed an ink or quill. Her name, for all purposes here, shall be written as Birtha as to not give way to whom or why, Birtha is Birtha, nothing more needed to be spoken about her.

I am sure that none whom have condemned me to this fate will want to know my name or where it was and why, but I shall do my best to recall the very needs that I have wrought. Thus, I shall call myself Tom. Simple. Rolls off the lips nicely as Birtha’s smile indicates.

I, Tom, are and were nothing more than a simple noose away from tying the knot. If it not for the woman Birtha, I were to be hung by the hangman himself, instead, I am the hangman. I wrangle those whom too have failed the eyes of the jurymen, those prolific eyes that seem to see all and know all, hazardous old men in their black and white, their perfect lives and wives in bonnet and blue, as if they were to say that WE are too good for you.

Nay I told them as they wrapped the rope around my hand, Nay, I commanded once more, as they levied their demands, for which then I took upon myself their wrath, then blinded was I and cast here only to be allowed out, if upon the condition is right, as is my punishment for being the man whom cast the first stone. I was the one who called out the Goodie Woman in bonnet blue and white, matching that of the man who sat at her right. He called me a treacherous lecher, though evidence I did provide, now, I sit here chained away while Birtha feeds me and bathes my skin. She is all that I have left.

Though I seen her not once, not in any of my outings, my mask has eye, but I have none to see with. Her voice is all that I know, the sweet sound it brings as she says hello to me, her voice is one of a carol of angels singing, though she and I have not once laid or seen eye to eye. She is all that I am allowed to know from my past life, as it is that I await the day when it will be mine to take. For upon that day, these words that are etched upon my soul will be bound to those whom haunt my dreams when I am alone.

The stones I have laid upon men and women to confess their sins to those who sin the most, to those idol men who claim their seat the highest and most.

It will be soon, I fear, whence I will be once more summoned, once more to hang another, once more to part a life that was surly innocent of their crime, as it was I too who was innocent and condemned to here as to rot standing. At least I am standing and my feet upon the earthen soil. Though I do not know the feeling anymore. It all feels different and cold.

It seems to me my time will be coming soon, Birtha told me that my days are as numbered as she. Seems we will die together. It will be nice to have a friend in hell whence we get there. I will have known someone.

Our day for the cruel joke of a crime that we are guilty for, our judgment, I am to ensure Birtha’s last, as I will then be crushed by the weight thereafter. We were asked if we seek salvation for our sins and Birtha answered for herself and me when she said that we had none to give. I felt her smile upon me then as she kissed my lips tenderly.

We are to see the last of the ‘morrow when the sun rises. Then our time is done.

May those whose punished us and made us take toll on men and women we knew not or agreed to find their place as hollow as we are and leave it.