The Day It All Ends

"THE DAY IT ALL ENDS" lying on that hospital bed, the sheet has been pulled back, the room has been cleared. time of death: the day I was born. the doctors don't know what to think. the nurses think of their children at home. they’ll notify my next of kin. only, there is no next of kin. they prepare my body for the morgue and fill out the paperwork: john doe. as the pen writes to finish the last of my identification, a phone rings. the nurse asks the other line, "will you be here soon? we need the bed." the phone hangs up and there is silence. shortly after, the staff watch my visitor walk down the hall and into my room. they stand at the edge of my bed and rub my feet. "well kid, you bought the ticket and you took the ride. you can rest now. you can rest now. I'll be seeing you." the visitor pulls a pen from their coat, crosses out the john doe and writes my name. soon after, they're gone. the nurse in charge asks who they were. no one knows. "they did scratch off the unknown," one nurse says. "his name is Eddie." someone wanted me here. someone wanted me remembered. someone made sure I was recognized. as the sand drops in the hourglass, as everything in life repeats, as the chalk frowns turn to dust, as the flies circle over my body like vultures in a desert full of rotted flesh, finally, I am good for something. I only wish I knew who thought so. By: Chicano Eddie 9-16-2016