|
Frankenstein
I guess it was a dream, this thing I could be, and as such it was a noble thing and it radiated like a glossy poster
on a wall, alluring, inspiring, beguiling and lusty. It was a freeway fantasy, my highway companion, it could launch
my cubicle off a snow peaked mountain, or convert my morning cup of coffee into a clicking, popping, press conference.
It had been that way for ages, always out there in front of me, until that ill-advised, over-rated moment when I resolved
, with urgent vim and sweaty grit to actually give it steam. When I dragged it out from its cryogenic chamber and somehow,
with aide of electrodes, heavy doses of Vitamin B, and a dollop of bad judgement, brought it to life. When I breathed
new air into its paper lungs and then…
Behold.
Its eyes popped open, hope unleashed and now I'm Dr. Frankenstein, a life-giver,
a magician, a monster-maker and so my dream doesn't looks so pretty anymore, not
so noble now. It has vile cracks in its head, vivid purplish scars and unpleasing
bolts on its neck and that's when this poster poser mutates into an unsparing wide-screen,
surround sounding theatrical production; an inglorious and burning illumination of human
fallibility, novice arrogance, unbridled ineptitude and an inadequacy of reach, newly discovered
and yet…clear as crystal. Like a bold and brazen signature scribbled across a bad cheque, with a
certain cache of dashing buffoonery, but lacking the substance.
And later.
Inanimate once more, but not just that, dead, death - fresh kill, flesh kill - and no
different than any other carcass it needs to be buried deep and vaulted, else it will reek,
fester, and sour. And best to drop it, harshly if necessary, into a grave unmarked, in a
weedy cemetery soon forgotten.
Do we build monuments to shame?
Then let this stinking corpse rot in darkened obscurity, hidden away like bad children at a dinner party, and visit it never, on purpose.
James Nantau lives in Windsor, Ontario and writes fiction.
His work has appeared or is forthcoming at Ascent Aspirations, Taj Mahal Review,
Hack Writers, The Cynic and Pine Tree Mysteries. Feedback of any kind is always welcome by email.
Email: James Nantau
Return to Table of Contents
|
