Dead Men In Literature

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Recommended: Death in modern poetry

The Dead Man and the Cure

The desert was the apotheosis of all deserts, huge expanding into dusty nothingness in all directions. The dying man walked and his footfalls puffed indifferently. He did not know how much longer his feet or his soul would carry him.
His death was certain, for they all had told him. He knew his doom and the incurable pain of the world gone mad. He had visited the church and the ones in robes said he was damned by whatever gods they prayed to. He had studied at the academy in an attempt to find answers to his affliction, but found only the stench of scholarly bull-shit. He had placed his heart in the hand of whore-oracles in a quest for the one solution only to be shattered and sucked like a dry husk. He grew closed to the death and the depth of being, which he hated.
He had come to the desert with dead eyes and will to burn. He walked the walk of the last rited and welcomed the sting of the dry sand when it would touch his lips.
He walked on and felt the last essence drain the will removing itself. He stared into the open space of a cold- fire heaven fell to his knees and performed the act of contrition for he had embraced the fate of the hollow empty man he had become. In gasp he fell total into the flatness of the wasteland and waited to die. The world was colorless to him before, but now it was black.
Later in the curious muse of time a dark natty haired French-man and his beautiful companion with a case came upon the fallen man. The French-man took one look at the man and knew what he must do. The French-man leaned over and placed a small magic plastic puck in the man’s flannel and showed him the life of fun and camaraderie like a brother. They showed him the gift of crazy times, the Zen of air-hockey, and appreciation of odd theatre. Still he lay and they walked away, but before the French-man left he yelled “SHOTGUN!” The dead man stirred the tiniest bit.
Next a woman loud and wild came to the man. She picked up his head which where the skin had pulled tight against his body opened his lips and placed a small brightly colored piece of candy in his mouth.

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