Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS writer
I see a sunflower outside my window-sill. Its body held strong with pride, while its leaves collapse with exhaustion – like an old women leaning on her walking stick, urging her body forward, while craving for some stability.
I observe its arms. They were young and supple once. A brilliant emerald green – once full of life. Now, the colour of death. Death. What is the colour of death? Well, I now see it before me. The yellow petals, once vibrant yellow, almost gold shimmering in the sunlight, now a putrid shade of citrus, burning your insides when you look it, and leaving a sour aftertaste in your mouth.
I can see its eyes. They stare back at me through its face. Its yellow face that stares at me when I bend down and touch it – it almost sences me approaching when I reach out to support its broken and fragile body, and it shudders, like I had stepped on it. Maybe I did? Maybe it has too much pride to be aided, and its saying, no, this is my battle to be won. I came into the world myself, and I’ll enter the world myself, bitch. Ok calm down little flower.
I see its lungs. This little creature is on its last breath. I can almost see it as it wheezes in and out, in and out. It’s faint heartbeat in its feet, pounding through its roots, trying to stand erect whilst its eyes look ahead to the sunset – one which may never come. Saddened, I look a little closer.
I see a soul. It’s like this soul is bursting though its orifices, in its colouring, in its life force, saying ‘Stay alive, Stay alive! Don’t die! I’ll never die!” And it wills itself to keep on trying, to keep on living. But why? Just to struggle another day, to stand tall just to be knocked back down again? I see this little creature has decided to keep on living, and to keep on trying. But why? I listen.
Sound. I can hear its voice, it actually whispers to me as I sit next to it. It tells me stories, of its journey to get to where it is now. This creature wanted to be an entity that was there to be admired, and to be seen as a token of light and hope. I suddenly look again, and realize that I am talking to a women. And hearing what she has been through. Her name is Kia. Nothing cliché like sunny, or something along those lines. Just Kia. I really like that name. Kia. Kia. Kia?
But suddenly she starts to sway, and then starts to fall towards the ground. I grab her before she hits the pavement. “Kia!” I yell out. She lays there, and then slowly opens her heavy eyelids. She looks at me long and hard, and I hold my breath as I wait for her to say something. But she just sits there with her mouth open, gazing intently into my eyes, as if trying to get across some meaning. I continue to hold my breath, and she continues to hold hers, until I cannot hold mine any longer and have to let go. But she continues to lay there, still as a rock, until I realize. I cant hear anything. Nothing. Not a thud, or a whisper, or a grunt, or a laugh. Nothing. And that is when I realize. it is over.
She is no longer with us. Her lungs, her eyes, her soul, her sound is no longer with us. And she has transcended to something supposedly much more beautiful, and moved on to a bigger and better place. I suddenly look to the sky, tears in my eyes and say, “You tried so hard, but for what!” I stand up and shout “Why, what is the point of it all, you gave me hope, and now your gone and all I have to look forward to is to is death!!”And as I slowly looked away, I suddenly could see a little green sprout forming just to the right of my left foot, and I slowly kneel down to look at it. Its fresh smile and beaming energy suddenly uplifts me, and I suddenly feel at peace and calm.
You didn’t leave me, I say out loud. And I didn’t expect an answer.