Tag: death

Just another body behind the dumpster

On By Jerry BrothertonIn flash, Short Stories6 Comments

Life had turned its back on Jason so many years ago that he no longer held a grudge. Though, if anyone had ever had a reason to give God the bird, it would have to be him.

He said he was married once; if you could call it that. It was more like a whirlwind of passion followed by months of hatred and torment. Eventually, the entire affair succumbed to the throes of mistrust and subsequent unfaithfulness. Of course, each one blamed the other and perhaps neither one was wrong.

After that, he tried to make a go of it, flitting from one job to another in search of the one thing that would make him happy. He moved around a lot. At first it was just from one place to another in the same city, then to different cities and finally different states. He told me that he was always looking for some place to fit in, but just never seemed to be able to adapt. He was always the outsider, the odd duck so to speak, and thus began his hatred of people. Maybe hatred is too strong a word for what Jason felt toward others. Perhaps it was more like disillusionment in his fellow man. It was hard for him to get past the ‘stupidity of the world’ as he called it.

Life

On By Jerry BrothertonIn Poetry, Rhyming3 Comments

The stone is set

My die has been cast

What the future brings

Will slide into the past

No amount of want

Will ever make it stay

It will fade to memories

Of yesterday

My Funeral

On By Jerry BrothertonIn Free Verse, Poetry4 Comments

Someday they will gather at my end

Each heart will mourn in its own way

The old folks will cry without shame

The young will smile and remember when

The children will just wonder who’s in the box

Lullaby

On By Jerry BrothertonIn Poetry, Rhyming41 Comments

I’d like to sing to you a lullaby

To make all your troubles disappear

Tell you there is no need to cry

That you will never know hate or fear

 

But I must tell you about the boy in class

With a gun tucked in his backpack

And how life can be taken in a flash

And some mistakes can’t be taken back

 

I would like to tell you a Fairy Tale

Of how friendships made will never end

And true love will always prevail

A world where evil will never win

 

But I have a different story to tell

About the maniac with a bomb in his car

Planned his action far too well

And left the shopping mall a lifeless char

 

I would like to hold you in my arms

To place a kiss upon your brow

Tell you I will keep you safe from harm

And always be there for you somehow

 

But a different song of fate I must sing

Not “Hush Little Baby, Don’t say a Word”

‘Cause the world is filled with monstrous things

With boiling blood and hatred stirred

 

So sleep tonight under a peaceful sky

Let tomorrow bring what may

I can only promise you that I will try

To keep all the monsters away

The Before and After

On By Jerry BrothertonIn Non Fiction, Short Stories17 Comments

When I was a much younger version of myself, there was an order to my existence. Life and death made sense to me because science told me the truth about the universe. The one thing I thought I knew was that energy could not be created or destroyed. So the concept of Heaven and Hell were just mythical constructs created by man to rationalize death.

We simply choose to place our loved ones in the Here-After to create the illusion that we might one day see them again. It eased the sorrow we felt at their passing. I understood that and I accepted death as a simple transference of energy from one thing to another.

Death made sense to me because ‘age’ dictated that people had outlived their life span. After all, our bodies are frail things and can only sustain life for a finite amount of time.

Besides, I was young and healthy. Any thoughts of the end were far from my mind. Maybe I would live forever or at least technology would develop to a point where our lifespans would make it seem like forever.

Oh yes, I was happy with my beliefs.

But that was when I was young.

The voices of destiny have started to whisper their harsh words of mortality into my ears. It’s no secret that I am the next to youngest of fifteen children. Now whatever your thoughts on that might be; we can discuss on some future blog. The reason I mention it here is because, much too quickly, my huge family has dwindled from fifteen children to seven.

And now, my body is moving further down that corridor of existence, and I can feel it beginning to break apart. Age is forcing my beliefs to crumble and I find myself spending more and more time (probably too much time) thinking about what the future holds for me.

So, I need to believe that I’ve been wrong all these years. I’m hoping that there’s something more than just the now and that there is some place set aside for me in the after.