The Eagle

The Eagle

   As I skipped across the lazy hog I felt the vibrations of the TVs gone by. The little green man who shoved me out into the busy road chuckled as he’d slapped the screen silly. The TV lost control and sucked him into a stickle of static.

   “Be gone with you, peasant!” screamed the amber light as he booted forth the red.

   I turned back to the rubulant red as she pierced the night with a disapproving glare.

   A Ferrari honked at my spirit as a folly lorry eyed her up. Oh, wasn’t he embarrassed when the lights turned green and out of his pipe shot a massive cloud of gastric enterprise. It was one of those things- she already had her bonnet stuck up the back of a sleazy VW.

   “Honestly!” I heard a man cry. “Hogans these days!”

   I dove into the trees before a condulant corkus calamity could take my ears and slap them across the road. It’d be safer in the umple’s embrace- deep within the salvation key that was nestled in my guts. I felt as they slid out the back door.

   “You’ve gut to be kidding me!” I grumbled, scooping them up and shoving them down my throat.

   A tiny bluebird stole away my song of agonising glee and scattered it across the land.

   “Get it together, meek little thing!” exclaimed a snooty pine tree. “Branch out a little! Go back to your roots, find your own song. Leaf room for growth. A sapling forever you’ll be if you do not reach to the stars. Listen to me, for I am a tree.”

   I listened to the words she spoke and revered her wisdom. She knew more than I so I cut her down…

   I saw myself- my reflection, though, it wasn’t me. I saw a vision of someone else- everyone else. “It’ll never be me!”

   “Barking mad, if you ask me!” the pine tree grumbled. “You must not run from your reflection. You are who you wish to be. I am nothing like my mother, wood you believe!”

   I stared at the tree wordlessly.

  “She was just a mere pine tree…”

   “Come now, let’s be realistic!” a doe whispered to its child.

   I turned and ran from the petrified lake and sought refuge in a distant temple, far to the east.

   An eagle called my name, but I could not recognise her as one of my own. Guide me she will not if I cannot unleash the dragon. I reached to the back of my being and saw the beast, teeth glistening in the darkness, eyes bright and filled with rage. How could I have known the truth in that web of lies. She spun it skilfully- that spider of mine; a stripe across its back. A mark of victory. Now I had no choice but to keep the beast within, for uncontrollable it would become if it were released.

   I sang as I wiped the blood from the walls. Each day it rained down on me as I remained alone. The colour of life, the sight of death- the flavour of eternity. It burned my eyes. Every day.

   One day she emerged from the walls. She was myself- my mother. I knew that she would soon arrive. I hadn’t been wrong. A bellberry bracket flew from the sky and landed right before my door. Within it resided a single pink petal. Not wishing to spoil it, I left it alone.

   Days went by- the sun rose and fell from the rumple’s back, the stars scattered and were whipped away once again. Turkey continued his long journey up and down the mountainside, while the hats of the heavens remained, resting firmly upon the masters’ heads. Time was still the poison that slaughtered us steadily. Yet, just a simple sneeze and we could all come tumbling down.

   I grew tired of the game, where the blacks and whites quarreled over clouds and choked on the bones of those empty words they hurled at one another in spite. I was there to simply smile and look pretty. I grew numb to the silence that was screaming in my ear- the silence I had to keep. Incessant. I opened my mouth and sent the checked board flying.

   All the cats from across the land descended from their cradles, claws sharp and teeth bared, they readied to attack. My wolf, he would protect me as best he could, but with the multitude of fearsome felines, the odds were frightful.

   As it turned out, my life was elastic. It flew on through the door and came bouncing back, much like a loyal rubber ball. My wolf eyed it up as it purred contentedly in my hands.

   With a howl, my wolf called forth the spirit of the stars and the eagle that always watched me from afar brought it to me.

   Just as the cats sprang from the undergrowth, the morning blood rained down from the sky. The felines recoiled instantly, transforming into rubies before our eyes.

   I left my temple to collect one of the rubies- I held it in my left hand and brought it to my chest. Within moments, there she stood- my mother. Myself. Not my reflection. From the pink petal she emerged. I’d dropped my mintified words in the grass and reached down to retrieve them once again…

Author's Note

Highly experimental. I'd be really interested to hear your interpretations.