<!DOCTYPE html> <!-- AUTOCENTO OF THE BREAKFAST TABLE --> <!-- vim: fdm=indent --> <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"> <title>The Death Zone | Autocento of the breakfast table</title> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="trunk/favico.png" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="trunk/style.css"> <script src="scripts/randomize.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script src="scripts/hylo.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <!--[if lt IE 9]> <script src="http://html5shim.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js"> </script> <![endif]--> </head> <body id="death-zone" class="stark"> <article class="container"> <header> <!-- title --> <h1 class="title">The Death Zone</h1> <div class="header-extra"> <!-- 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 class="attrib">Philip Gould</div> </div> </div> </header> <div class="ekphrastic"> <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2013/11/19/245996903/embracing-life-and-death"> <img src="trunk/gould.png" title="Philip Gould" alt="Philip Gould" /> </a> </div> <section class="content verse"> <p><span class="line">When I think of death I think</span><span class="line">of Peter Falk in <em>The Princess Bride</em> patting</span><span class="line"><a href="creation-myth.html">his pockets</a> as he leaves the room</span></p> <p><span class="line">Life is a series of doors or so</span><span class="line">they say but I ask them this</span><span class="line">where does that last door lead?</span></p> <p><span class="line">For Falk maybe it leads backstage</span><span class="line">a black-walled catered affair with stage</span><span class="line">lights slowly baking stale muffins</span></p> <p><span class="line"><a href="i-wanted-to-tell-you-something.html">Sweaty cheese</a> leaking onto dried-out</span><span class="line">grapes a chocolate fountain clogged</span><span class="line">by some errant strawberry crown</span></p> <p><span class="line">but this is not where it leads for you or</span><span class="line">for me that door opens onto darkness marked</span><span class="line">only by a trellis or the lid of a casket</span></p> <p><span class="line">the door of the <a href="about-the-author.html">earth’s womb</a> opening</span><span class="line">finally to accept us and with us the dirt</span><span class="line">not to grow more strawberries for Falk</span></p> <p><span class="line">but to pad his feet as he walks overhead</span><span class="line">to visit someone he certainly cares about</span><span class="line">but whose name is lost to posterity.</span></p> </section> </article> <nav> <div class="anchors"> <a href="backlinks/death-zone.html" id="backlinks" title="Links to this page"> φ </a> <a href="index.html" id="coverlink" title="To cover">◊</a> <a href="#" id="randomizelink" title="ERROR">ξ</a> </div> <a class="prevlink" href="exasperated.html" title="Previous article in Stark Raving"> Exasperated </a> <a class="prevlink" href="amber-alert.html" title="Previous article in Stark Raving"> AMBER alert </a> <a class="nextlink" href="big-dipper.html" title="Next article in Stark Raving"> The Big Dipper </a> <a class="nextlink" href="exasperated.html" title="Next article in Stark Raving"> Exasperated </a> </nav> </body> </html>