House of the Rising Sun
In a smokey room, each time I awake, the dream again descends. Deeper into the
abyss I fall to a sea of melancholic funk. Souls waft by on clouds of imagination,
clinging to the dank ceiling. The raven sits, waiting, to carry its troth to Amadeus,
the who in charge. Its red eyes gleaming reflections of misery and living death; of
hell in abundance, as it collects the souls. Amadeus, licks his lip, unknowingly.
Small beads of spittle glow from the corners of his mouth. He and the raven sing
soft and low. They sing to music of pipes sucked and drawn dry. Dry from the dying
gurgle of moisture collected in the stem, Hallelujah! Where is God for me this day,
this hour, this moment in time? My innermost thoughts being fed to the who. Show
me the smallest spark of a flame of divine presence. Am I so lost as to lose the glow
of his love placed into my heart, even as in the womb, by my mother’s joy and her
presence of being in Christ. Please Lord, travel even that thin thread to rescue me.
Not for my sake, but hers. Not for my soul, but her legacy. Not for my tears but her
joy. Not for my pain but her peace. Not for my work but her faith. He said it is so. I
think it must be so. The ground began to tremor. It sighed as it shifted ever so
slightly, not felt by Amadeus, but noticeable, in the fetid liquid constantly weeping
onto the walls and puddling in the floor. The tremors still vibrated, as I was moved
away from the deep. Gathering strength as Amadeus lost control, I moved farther
and farther up the stairs, praying for no interference. Suddenly, it seemed the
universe was changing, moving somehow to accomadate, I knew not what. Mind
bending, shape shifting molecular alterations, occurring in four different planes at
once. I was losing uniformity, cohesion, sensibility and reason. Light, darkness,
sweat, transference, crept into and over me as I passed over and under things.
Beings? semi-beings, merging, separating, into total nothingness. Rraaammuus,
very far off, as my head began to clear. Ramus! Ramus? “Oh, you are awake.” her
lilting voice bringing back my sanity. “Where did we go last night Baby”? I remarked.
“Where did we go?” she asked. Explaining further, she had dropped me off at the
House of the Rising Sun, over on the bay front. I hadn’t come home up until she
came back, about twenty minutes before. She said I must have stumbled in,
sometime in the last ten minutes. Strange though----I did not have my key to that
lock---!!!
For Catie's dark prose contest
Copyright ©
Charles Henderson
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