I Am Vertical (but I’d rather be horizontal)

Clarity Scifiroots

All

Character(s): Josh

Spoilers: “In The Shadow of Two Gunmen” (Part One)

Written for TWW100 Challenge 92—Sylvia Plath poetry

Disclaimers apply.. Excerpt of poetry from Sylvia Plath’s “I Am Vertical.”

Summary: A hundred words from ITSOTG.

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It is more natural to me, lying down.
Then the sky and I are in open conversation,
And I shall be useful when I lie down finally:
Then the trees may touch me for once, and the flowers have time for me.

Bullets fall like speeding hail from the sky. He can hear the sounds of glass breaking and bodies hitting the ground—tires screeching and determined footfalls of secret service agents rushing to do their job. Already he thinks he might hear sirens, but that might be his imagination combined with the screams from the crowd.

Somewhere in the madness he feels the impact of the lead pierce his chest. Amidst the nearby sobbing and the crackle of agents’ walkie-talkies he hears the roaring of blood in his ears. It hurts to breathe. He finds himself staring at the moonless sky.

~ * Fin * ~