Hyphen-Life

By Sooz006

Fri, 31 Aug 2012
  • 793 reads
2 comments
 

How important do you feel
When it occurs to you for the first time that your entire life is but a hyphen?
A small dash the same size as everybody else’s small dash into which you must fit all of your joy and happiness, trouble and pain.
Just a little horizontal line between two otherwise meaningless dates.
Your hyphen-life.

-

Look above
My life is displayed for you to see.
Is it any better or worse than yours?

I walked amongst the silence and flowers today reading the hyphens.
No matter if a life lasted one hundred years or just one day, it was measured by the same sized dash.

And then I found the hyphen I was looking for.

Susan Simpson 1963 – 2035 RIP.

Certificate 12
Writing 2008
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by hudsonmoon on
Hope you're not selling yourself too short, Sooz. 72 is the new 32. I think. I liked the last half of this. Good ghostly feel to it. Original and clever. And apparently I'm ten years your senior. Richard McDonough 1953 - 2038. 85 always sounded like a good number to me. Speaking of ghostly. I went to the Mark Twain house the other day with my wife Darcey. It was a Wednesday and we had tickets for the 12:30 tour. When our tour guide showed up, we were the only two around. We felt real special. A private tour. And it felt spooky. Old houses usually do. Enjoyed reading, Sooz. Rich

 

Submitted by geegogs1 on
Another great read, Sooz. Brilliant metaphore for life. I've read a few very short stories on here but your succinct style really appeals to me. Its just my taste but i'm not a fan of folks using big,fancy words that i have to look up! I just switch off and feel alienated. I think there is more skill in using everyday language to encapsulate complex ideas. You've done that brilliantly. Ps I've finally written a story on here. I'd love for u to take a look at it when u get a second.