Contest Entries - Suddenly aware - Red Thread - Realisation

Suddenly aware - Red Thread - Realisation

Jan 7, 2023

271

2 Mins Read

This is based on my poem 'Red Thread'. It takes place after the poem does - the main character is the speaker.

You can find the poem in my poem book 'poems' issue #12 'Red Thread'.

I think the OG poem actually came from a prompt Marcus Twainius The Second gave me?

This is a bit long? Or short? I don't know, it was fun to write though!

Who will die next?

Who

will

die

next?

I can't hold onto a single thought for longer than a moment.

I shake

involuntarily

as I rock

voluntarily

in the corner of my office.

I haven't left for days,

I can't face them - the surviving.

275Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK7M4XOZ2wx

Who will be the next

to knock on my door and look at me

expectantly

as if I know what's going on?

as if I were the only policeman for miles,

which, of course,

I am - aren't I?

Red thread is clutched in my sweaty hand,

pooled on the floor,

stretched like lasers across the room.

What has happened to my town, my home -

it cannot be natural.

275Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtB7Q0JyD1U

It just can't.

275Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVIshLEJkVF

Ten deaths in a week?

Twenty in three?

Ten

Twenty

Eight

Red

Dead

Dead.

No footprints I can photograph

and pin to my corkboard.

No suspects I can interview

No DNA on the scene, no scene, no nothing.

Like a stupid detective novel

with no conclusion.

275Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡflZxZfj5c6

Like a stupid detective novel.

Like a stupid

detective novel.

Like a

stupid

book.

275Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQqPijyXhq9

275Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1DZHpEBbIG

In a book

everyone dies,

and the cause?

and the murderer?

and the reason for it all?

275Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwNzG3ryGlE

The writer.

The author.

The killer.

275Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmNXJwsc5ri

I rake my hands through my unwashed hair.

Where did I come from?

What's outside my town?

Do I have parents?

Did I exist

before I arrived here?

Do I exist

at all?

275Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCjCxM7MqR5

I stand

for the first time in hours.

I pull

all my doomed 'evidence' off my walls,

I write

three words on lined paper before

I rip

out the words I wrote and

I pin

them to the corkboard.

275Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzYrQ78x8DX

I stand.

I pull.

I write.

I rip.

I pin.

275Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCaImVU3Sqp

One word

HERE

another

FICTION

another

ME.

275Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQV7UKYUMSV

I cut some red thread

from the messy pile upon the floor.

I connect

HERE

FICTION

HERE

again.

275Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpIHwoouqPX

I think, perhaps, I've solved the case

at last.

ns216.73.216.213da2

0 likes Suggest Edits

Be the first to like this issue!

Suddenly aware - Red Thread - Realisation

REGISTER

LOGIN

Interface Language:

Story Language: