[RhetoricThug]

An excerpt from my short story, Nihilist's Hotel, Resort for Denial

Raw Ray didn't want to read his poem aloud. It was his psychiatrist's idea, it was his psychiatrist who unearthed terrible memories and inexplicable guilt. If only he had hidden it all away deep down inside or, better yet, tied that cable a little tighter to the ceiling fan. Maybe it wasn't his fault, the ceiling fan just couldn't hold his weight.


"Little Laura leaned then leapt
Out the car door
Tossed like a used cigarette
Tumbling fourfold on pavement

Battered and rashed by black tar's dry top
Poppa still driving
Didn't turn head didn't stop
Guzzling whiskey a hand on ten and a bottle at six

She escaped that man's foul mouth and cracked lips
Clenched fist
And alcoholic lisp
But broke her neck in the process.

Bones will dry and buzzards will pick
Apart a girl whose father shan't miss
But at least she had courage
Dumb bitch"

"Ray, she was only seven years old," the doc said while scribbling riddles on a note pad.

"Sure, sure, and I'm sixty eight, when will my sentence be served? How was I suppose to know what she was planning, hell, I don't think she even planned it. Coulda been an accident, coulda been the door's fault."

"You were a drunk and abusive father, Ray... It's in your profile," his spectacles slid down the ridge of his nose as two beady black eyes gave Ray a glance of disapproval.

"My Pops was ah' drunk too, I didn't jump out a moving vehicle did I? Hell, we had suicide doors back then."

"Unfortunately you grew up during an uncivilised time, Ray. Today we make sure the state shelters children, keeping them safe from unfit parents. We only wish to provide them with the best life possible."

"Best life, ha, what do you know about a better life?"

"For one thing, I know it begins with change. Change in your thinking patterns, changing your surroundings, resulting in change for your behavior as well."

"How can a man change if he only has a past to remind him who he is?"

"Listen Ray, our time here is over. I feel we are making progress. Tomorrow we will work on socializing you with other patients. Try not to worry and get some proper sleep tonight. I will be keeping this poem for your file... if that is alright with you."

"Man, Fuck you."



-RT