Birth, Death, Etc.
Somewhere I have a picture postcard of Kafka’s birthplace in Prague. Even the cashiers at the gift shop there were imbued with a kind of perverted charm, offering suggestions about how to be productive while extremely depressed. Linger someplace too long, though, and the infrastructure starts to crumble. I was an adult when I realized there’s no word that designates a person as being a parent who has lost a child – a word like widow or orphan. Sartre’s last words were “The life of a repo man is always intense.” Flags were burned in protest. The rest just flung flowers.
Somewhere I have a picture postcard of Kafka’s birthplace in Prague. Even the cashiers at the gift shop there were imbued with a kind of perverted charm, offering suggestions about how to be productive while extremely depressed. Linger someplace too long, though, and the infrastructure starts to crumble. I was an adult when I realized there’s no word that designates a person as being a parent who has lost a child – a word like widow or orphan. Sartre’s last words were “The life of a repo man is always intense.” Flags were burned in protest. The rest just flung flowers.
Howie Good is the author most recently of Stick Figure Opera: 99 100-word Prose Poems from Cajun Mutt Press. He co-edits the online journals Unbroken and UnLost.