It's time for our second story responding to the prompt "There was a statue in the garden." !! I'm sorry for such a long wait, but I think you'll have fun seeing how differently Jessica responded to the prompt. I hope you enjoy this story poem, and be sure to leave a comment!!
Trigger Warning: Parent death
“Is it finished yet?”
“It’ll be done by this evening,”
the boy’s father said with a smile.
It had been only six months
since the boy’s mother
had left the world,
and he felt guilty
because part of him
(a very small part)
was angry with her
for leaving him alone.
He had his father
of course
but no one understood him
the way his mother had.
They had joked that they shared one soul
split into two bodies.
When his mother passed away
he felt as though part of his soul
was somewhere else
waiting to be reunited with him.
Now the boy had to wait for many things:
Waiting for his grief to lessen
Waiting for many years to be reunited with his mother
Waiting for the marble statue his father ordered
fashioned in his mother’s likeness to be completed
But tonight
the statue
was finished.
And when the velvet curtain was pulled
off of the statue
in the light of the sunset that evening
the boy felt a little less alone in the world.
The first thing the boy noticed
was not the face
of the carved marble,
but the arms.
The long slender arms of the statue
were outstretched
as though they were reaching for an embrace.
The boy liked to believe
that this was a message
just for him,
reminding him
of his mother’s love for him.
He spent day after day in the shadow
of the statue.
Countless hours
Staring at his mother’s likeness,
dreaming of the day he would return to her.
“Hello!”
The boy turned around
and saw his father’s wide eyes
and frown that made his wrinkles appear
more severe than they actually were.
“I’ve called you several times,
didn’t you hear me?”
“No, I didn’t.”
His father sighed
and stared at the ground.
“I’ve got something to tell you
and I know you won’t feel ready for it,
but sometimes that’s when the best things in life
happen to us.
I’m sorry I didn’t involve you,
But I’ve gotten married.”
The boy sank to the ground
and crossed his arms
over his chest
as though he were dead.
He cradled himself
rocking back and forth
as disgust and shock set in.
Something crumpled inside of him.
His father spoke
before walking away.
The boy did not hear him.
He didn’t remember
the day he met his stepmother
or her son.
He only remembered the day
he looked out his bedroom window
and saw his stepbrother
swinging on the arms
of his mother’s statue.
He was only a toddler
he didn’t know any better.
But the boy didn’t care.
He went into a rage,
allowing the anger to overtake him.
His world turned blood red.
The boy ran into the garden,
pulled his stepbrother off the statue
and threw him to the ground.
He stared in shock for a moment
as he realized
that one of the arms
had broken
from the statue.
“Jacob!”
The boy heard his father yelling his name,
but he heard nothing else.
His ears filled with a ringing,
he went to his bedroom
and made his own prison,
locking himself away
from the outside world.
After three days
he emerged from his room.
He found his father
reading alone in the library.
They looked at each other
but said nothing.
He found his stepmother
in the living room.
They looked at each other
but said nothing.
He found his stepbrother in the garden.
Jacob sat down beside him.
“Michael,” Jacob whispered.
The little boy turned away from him.
Jacob looked at Michael’s arm
and winced at the hand shaped bruise
Jacob had left
when he pulled Michael
off of his mother’s statue.
Jacob stood
and offered Michael his hand.
Michael hesitated
and then took his stepbrothers hand.
They walked together
to the statue.
Jacob picked up
the marble arm
that had broken
from his mother’s statue.
“Fix it?” Michael asked.
“No,” Jacob whispered.
Jacob put his hands into the earth
and began to dig.
Michael followed his example.
When they had dug a large enough hole
Jacob placed the marble arm
into its little grave
and together
Jacob and Michael
filled it with earth.
Hand in hand
they walked away,
and Jacob decided
that he loved his mother
the most in the world,
but he didn’t need
the statue
anymore.
The ending struck me as the grieving boy chose a living human over a memorial statue. Beautifully full circle with what they dug together.
ReplyDelete