The broken clock
It all begins after a major blur into a realm that fails to explain why the
body sarcomas to the ultimate high with no side effects but only amazing
effects that comes very close to the real thing enveloping the trinity of a
man's being into some aura spinning many decades in only a matter of minutes
nightmares, erotic dreams what is it with dreams? This fellow who seemed yellow
in complexion from a distance declared an insomniac by those forces neglected
by humankind, those defined by the cosmos only known by spirits that are in
cohesion with it that it makes them frivolous in the eyes of the unconsciously
living. Thought to him-self spinning under a ceiling less roof exposing the
gloomy grey zinc sheets of this architectural structure exposing lack of
creativity, consumed by his thoughts to the depths that food lost its tastes,
water had no sense of nourishment his only connection to this mortal world was
his thoughts this great big cocoon of riches that could fill many pages and what
makes it all the more satisfying is that only he knew what they meant as if
some unsolvable mathematics problem that could only be solved by him, a
secret that the lord had told him in the secrecy of the night when all is out
of sight. This realm of life where he was king.
What Mandela was to
The clock strikes 11pm
Accompanied by a gong that banged 11times each with increasing intensity as
each passed well at least that's what it sounded like to him, as the world
outside his window dies down with the only creatures immune to fatigue being
cars going up and down the road with the same tone not losing intensity, the
lights go down and all retire to sleep as if it is a new fetish being
experienced for the first time. A man who lost all sense of sanity and knows
not his name anymore and refers to himself as a common man, spins about in his
bed balanced on all four legs by red stock bricks of a 4course height
equivalent staring into oblivion the light casting a shadow of broken black
upon the roof and the rest of the light was focused on this figure spread
across this bed covered by blankets.
It was the will of very few men to let their thoughts reincarnate in the small
spaces they occupy as he settled into his covers losing track of time, place,
and the actual universe he was inhabiting. His room was like a city miles
away sparkling as if to show life he turned to his right looking at his lace curtain
exposing the world outside a surge of thoughts suddenly as light does of
darkness and as suddenly as the surge pounced upon him he began to understand
the sayings of a great men that man is nothing when compared with everything
and everything when compared with nothing, a mean between nothing and
everything since he is infinitely removed from comprehending the extremes, the
end of things and their beginning are hopelessly hidden from him in an
impenetrable secret, he is equally incapable of seeing the nothing from which
he was created and the infinite in which he was swallowed up it is much the
feeling as speaking to god as he tramples on the soil of an environment where
all tries to understand their ways and keep up with the cycle of evolution
.what happens behind closed doors that is concealed to the world is it only
adultery, fornication and alcoholism or did it go beyond that, that somewhere
out there existed people who accepted passive activity of thinking with open
arms.
The clock strikes 1am
And practically all is quiet as if it has never come to know sound, the sky
seemed navy-blue died orange by lights on the streets, with the rattling of the
bed spring he turns to this picture on the wall of a forest, coloured black and
white stretching forever beyond this cubed framed picture isolating the
creative muse of this anonymous artist, Where was this place, how could he get
to it and would such a place conform to his complexion. He started posing
himself with questions, does such a connection exist between men and his
environment was he the one who held the answers to what ridicule society for
many centuries that have passed, how possible was it that in this quiet space
he had defined the many truths and its relation to men.
The clock strikes 3:45am
And the chirping of the birds begins as if paying attention to some biological
watch or proclaiming they are the first to pollute the sound waves, time
accelerates forward at an extreme pace from this moment onwards with the
tick-tock sound strange but nobody hears them except him. Time was corrupted by
the wee-hours of the morning that he began to doubt that time really existed?
Was it him who had lost track of time and was he destined to never catch up
with it. As everything becomes clearer both in the outside world and his world
he stretching his hands in an angle of repose to his head yawning but this was
no sign of sleep but a hint of the body's frustration of the many nights it had
been awake, he turns his sights to this mirror where he could see himself
clearly like never before this decorated part of him that he could blatantly
deny it was not him, this figure not blinking looking straight into his eye
lobes of a white ocean with a wandering Island that is decorated brown staring,
felt as if he wanted write but the numbness would not let his body make a
single move and find paper to do so, all he could try and do was document
everything and try to consider these thoughts later but when was later, how
late will it be because he has always been in the same very spot
The clock strikes 2:00am
Something was terribly wrong ,something had broken free to terrorise him ,time
had started spinning backwards ,he felt he had been in this time zone before
but nothing seemed to have changed from the outside world ,his world the world
in concern was the one which seemed a complete paradox ,he wanted to get up and
scream but everything was mute from banging on the walls to screams for help
only reverberated
In his teeth swallowed up by some black hole between his mouth and the world
that had escaped some universe alternate to his own and found him. As they say
that two-worlds can not coincide in each other this was true of this common
mans world who could be mistaken for anything fitting into everything, as if shedding
the wrinkles of age under his eyes as every second comes back was this the ever
illusive elixir of youth people had been obsessed about as he becomes younger
with the reverse of time the more naďve he became or was it an attempt to
eradicate his discoveries from the world by reversing time and reclaiming all
of the discoveries out of him , what was he to do when father time is so
protective over the land he rules
The clock strikes 12:55am
Slowly starting to panic was this the end of the world? Was this judgment day
announcing its arrival? sweat slowly taking form on his forehead as if acne on
a teenagers forehead was this it what men strove to see when things go in
reverse when tables turned lopsided levitating in the air when the whole of the
atmosphere is a hole overcome by the forces of the infinite when everything
just floats, has that time come where everything shall seize exist
"hello" he tried but nothing left his mouth, is this the realm where
everything was between deep space and the deep water where nothing exists in
which mankind had to compromise to live but since men is a stubborn creature it
is not in him to confirm and thus his end. He tossed in his bed in this mute
world , that no longer was his the luminous light losing effect it also
confused of whether to shine or die out ,the world outside was dusk and in this
second world the clock worked anti-time
The clock strikes 11pm
Ringing with the same intensity as it had done the previous time but instead of
ringing 11times it stopped at 10 it felt like an after shock of an explosion,
everything grew quite the birds went dead the cars all seemed to disappear and
as suddenly as it had happened a thought popped into his head, he began to
understand that this was what created men ,he thought ,this is what we owe our
existence to before time was an infant before the winds were named , men
was conceived in this primordial reality for him to rule it , his body could
not move only his thoughts were active in this space of nothing but as everything
has a start a definite end is on the other side of the door.
As this is unthinkable to those that inhabit the world and so it pounces upon
us like a lion on a hunt after a long period of drought and everything goes dim
as if a performance coming to an end, the clock tries to catch up with the real
time as a frantic effort to complete the task it was created for and seizes its
motion as it was about to strike 6am as if its lifeline was cut off instantly,
it seemed this invisible force first started with the minor of the world and
than came for the ultimate prize being humankind this yellow fellow turning
purple from suffocation of some sort and slowly falling slowly into this
deep sleep the expression on his face exposing the loss of pain as each second
past and his eyes became smaller and closed and finally men's final destination
in this darkness floating colliding with everything that ever had a shape or a
name ,the alphabets waiting to be caught but no one is there the world lost in
some alternate orbit deep where life is not permitted and everything ends.
Where money won't save your life or your surname exempts you from this reality
and all else is a formality akin with life
As unsuspectedly as it ended he heard this scream as
if he was submerged in water and was having difficulty deciphering the words he
slowly came afloat still under some hypnotic spell still unsure of what he
would find when he opened his eyes but with much effort he opened his eyes to
be met by this mature woman's face who after a second recognised that it was
his mother , she was saying something and for a while he did not recognise what
she was saying but after a repetition of the words he heard his mother saying
" you have been sleeping the whole day " the words that followed came
as a complete surprise to him when his mother said your clock is broken !!!
Kekeletso Molebatsi
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|
Name |
Comment |
Date |
|
Erna |
Oi!! A very convincing
portrayal of madness… but very difficult to read. I think the
stream-of-consciousness writing works to create an atmosphere of craziness
spinning out of control, but there is a bit too much of it. The piece could
do with some editing. It made my head spin, and I gave up trying to
understand. I like to read pieces that use correct and carefully considered
punctuation. Careless punctuation makes me feel that the writer did not take
the time to make the writing as perfect as it could be – and therefore I feel
that the writer does not value me, his reader. |
2007-11-21 |
|
Mandy |
This is a good storyline. It
engaged me because I did not know what to expect next and it kept me
wondering. |
2007-12-02 |
|
Ginny Swart |
To tell the truth I found this
incomprehensible! |
2007-12-14 |
|
Monde Mdodana |
I agree with Mandy, it’s a nice
story line. "This man is nothing when
compared to everything and everything when compared to nothing" Having struggled with issues of
self-esteem, I felt a connection with these words. Keep an eye on grammar and pretend
that you are having a conversation when you write. Points 3 - Very promising piece of writing |
2007-12-20 |