Black Tie

 

They say the best place to start is the beginning.
I say, what is the beginning?

Take a black tie for instance. Hold it up. Let it dangle.
Turn it over.
Reverse it.

Where is the beginning and where is the end?
And when it is tied around my neck…
What then?

Surely when it is in my fingers it must be in the middle.
So is there a beginning and end?
If it is subjective, then what?

Can there be a beginning to life?
I don't think so, for what produced it? 
Two cells?
What produced those two cells?
Atoms?
Energy?

But when it's around my neck it's a black tie.
I reach for my single malt.
The ice cubes clink against the crystal glass.
I swallow it all.
Is that the end?

Now we can't see anything
So what I ask is,
Where is the beginning
And the end?

I take a long look at my black tie
It's just a piece of loose cloth.

Hilary Kincaid Smith

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Louis

Where is the beginning, and where is the end?
Two questions that beg answers.  This short piece of open poetry/prose, I like the black tie metaphor in which you manage to answer both questions.

The beginning of a story (they say), should be where the action starts.  ~So we writers tend to start our stories at the beginning of an action sequence.  Does it end?  After we have written the piece, waves of memory float about. It doesn't end. 

A tie is like a rope, and your piece forces the admirer or the person wearing the tie to seek a beginning and an end.  Your piece dissects and dives deeper into the primordial porridge - layer after layer of life causing life and more questions about life.

We take life for granted.   We dream and dreams never end really.  They are in a
constant state of flux.

Back to the tie.

Is it just a piece of cloth?

Your piece makes for great conversation, and it's filled with questions that are answered in many different ways by many different people.

2007-11-09