The refrigerator hums along in middle C.
As I was slicing an onion, I cut myself; my blood oozed and became a rivulet; the juice ran to the cut like maggots debriding a wound.
The pain ate at my reserve, threatening my blood-frozen coldness; ah, such perverse pleasure in the pain.
Defrosting the fridge, I waited for my reserve to thaw; I waited for ice to melt but your words kept my blood to ice.
Today, the contractors knocked down a wall.
Thinking of our last fight, my reserve remains walled, my blood to ice.
I'm waiting for the thaw.
Meanwhile, the refrigerator hums along in middle C, as if nothing has happened.
As if nothing has happened.
You're fighting your war; you hope to return whole, or in pieces.
You're fighting a war with me - you hope to return whole, or in pieces.
You hope you can return, period.
I hope to get out.
My reserve remains walled, my blood to ice.
I'm waiting for the thaw. Meanwhile, the refrigerator hums along in middle C.
Today, I made Anne an omelet; she ate none of it, refused all food.
The marriage eats at her appetite. Michael stews in his room.
As if nothing has happened.
I go about my business, feeling nothing; my reserve is walled, my blood to ice.
I'm waiting for the thaw. Meanwhile, the refrigerator hums along in middle C.
Today, there will be no more progress.
Taking an axe, I smash the last wall, hoping for my reserve to break, my blood to warm and spring to bust out, like a crocus that pokes its head above the frozen tundra of our lives.
I wait for the thaw.
Today, the refirigerator stopped working, its hum a drumbeat that once measured my despair in song, now silenced.
Tomorrow will be another day.
I hope for progress, some or little.
Outside, the robin sings.
Spiritu, Spiritu, E tu, E tu; Cheerily, Cheerily, Cheerup, Cheerup.
I pack my bags. Everything has happened.
The thaw begins.
* * *
This is in the fictional series on marriage and family.
This has been rewritten since previous postings.
Previous:
Just when I need you all so damn much
The summer I found the rabbit by the side of the road
Copyright © 2006, 2007, 2008 Kathryn Esplin-Oleski
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Comments: 87
Not thawless, but flawless!
And almost clawless.
Cheers.
Middle C is a pitch, not a key. For A = 440 Hz, the frequency of middle C is a little over 261 Hz.
Electrical appliances in the US hum at multiples of 60 Hz. Multiples of 60 Hz are between Bb and B where A = 440 Hz.
Personally I think metaphorical truth is compromised when the chosen image doesn't have the correspondence with fact the reader might expect.
Nippy: :)
Excellent piece Kathryn! Great metaphor.
Have you seen Into The Wild, the movie? The movie made the pain of his disappearance so much more real to me. Painful to watch, but beautiful and expressive. Venner's music is also incredible. "Society, I hope you're not lonely without me." It makes my heart ache as a mother, feeling for his parents, not knowing, yet knowing something's wrong that he's lost to them. Your piece gives me the same feeling.
Nearly nothing but novels
Chemisty for a sustainable world
This is pretty much how I've felt since the Grandma I lived with fro the past 2 1/2 years was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and only had a matter of days to live.
Then the days turned into hours.
She died last Thursday morning.
The funeral was today.
It all seems so surreal sometimes but at other times reality sinks in.
Jerri, thank you. Lovely family photo!
Just plain excellent.
Jean, thank you.