Monster

In the wake of a great personal tragedy, our protagonist- incapable of abstraction- struggles to understand the morals he's violated.

I had forgotten my name.

"How do you feel?"

"I don't understand the question."

I tried to stay honest. I had sworn on the bible.

But the truth was unbearable. It was so full, and everything was as important as everything else.

"Try to focus."

I tried to focus, to stay 'present', in the moment.

But in that moment, in that single, visceral instant: between seconds, where action and meaning were stretched to eternity- so far ahead and behind- nothing was true.

***

Someone is talking, and looking at me. Chanting some mantra in a language I don't understand.

And questions like "How could you do this?"

He chants it again, it must be my name.

Reviews

[Ciara]

I imagine this is how it would feel in the aftermath of someone committing something horrific that was not premeditated but was just an in the moment "snap". It feels so terribly tragic.

[The Proletarian]

That's what I was going for, in fact this was inspired by Albert Camus' 'The Stranger'

[Ciara]

Oh! Classic!

[DIVYA]

But in that moment, in that single, visceral instant: between seconds, where action and meaning were stretched to eternity- so far ahead and behind- nothing was true.

A moment of reckoning captured so well. An interesting poem.