<!DOCTYPE html> <!-- Template for compiled 'Autocento' documents --> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="generator" content="pandoc"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes"> <meta name="author" content="Case Duckworth"> <!-- more meta tags here --> <title>The Death Zone | Autocento of the breakfast table</title> <!-- general styles & scripts --> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./css/common.css"> <script src="./js/lozenge.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script src="./js/hylo.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./css/verse.css"> <script src="./js/verse.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./css/stark.css"> <script src="./js/stark.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <!--[if lt IE 9]> <script src="http://html5shim.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js"> </script> <![endif]--> <!-- <script src="js/external.js"> </script> --> </head> <body> <header> <!-- title --> <h1 class="title">The Death Zone</h1> <!-- epigraph --> <div class="epigraph"> <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2013/11/19/245996903/embracing-life-and-death">And my life became death.</a> </div> <div class="epigraph-attrib">Philip Gould</div> </header> <section class="thing verse"> <figure> <img src="img/gould.png" alt="Philip Gould" /><figcaption>Philip Gould</figcaption> </figure> <p>When I think of death I think<br />of Peter Falk in <em>The Princess Bride</em> patting<br /><a href="creation-myth.html">his pockets</a> as he leaves the room</p> <p>Life is a series of doors or so<br />they say but I ask them this<br />where does that last door lead?</p> <p>For Falk maybe it leads backstage<br />a black-walled catered affair with stage<br />lights slowly baking stale muffins</p> <p><a href="i-wanted-to-tell-you-something.html">Sweaty cheese</a> leaking onto dried-out<br />grapes a chocolate fountain clogged<br />by some errant strawberry crown</p> <p>but this is not where it leads for you or<br />for me that door opens onto darkness marked<br />only by a trellis or the lid of a casket</p> <p>the door of the <a href="about-the-author.html">earth’s womb</a> opening<br />finally to accept us and with us the dirt<br />not to grow more strawberries for Falk</p> <p>but to pad his feet as he walks overhead<br />to visit someone he certainly cares about<br />but whose name is lost to posterity.</p> </section> <nav> <a class="prevlink" href="exasperated.html"> Exasperated </a> <a class="prevlink" href="amber-alert.html"> AMBER alert </a> <a href="#" id="lozenge" title="Random page"> ◊ </a> <a class="nextlink" href="big-dipper.html"> The Big Dipper </a> <a class="nextlink" href="exasperated.html"> Exasperated </a> </nav> </body> </html>