Tag: old age
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THE WAIT
They wait. Rain starts to fall, umbrellas unfurl. The leaves overhead are golden-brown, autumnal. It seems appropriate. The mood is patient. They’ve waited this long, what’s another hour or two? Most are elderly. The young can’t stand around like this, they have to keep moving, keep hustling, to get through the day. A shuffle forward,…
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A MURMUR
He watched the black mass moving through the dawn sky. Backlit by the sun’s orange-yellow glow, the sweeping and swooping birds danced in uniformity. It was, he mused, a stunning example of the beauty that could be found in the world. But not for him. For him, beauty in life had ended. There was only…
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LIFESPAN
The span of their lives ran together. Born within minutes of each other in the same city, they attended different schools separated by only one block, divided more by religious difference than geography. They found each other through mutual friends in their teenage years, growing closer with every trip to the park, visit to the…
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HIS DAILY PERAMBLE
The first snow of the winter arrived. He looked out at the path and the fields, transformed, covered in a smooth white cowling. This might be the last time he would see such a sight, the pure untrodden blanket, but he’d thought that every winter for the last decade and still he soldiered on. Each…
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AN ACT OF MERCY
His face was as stony as the rocky outcrop at the top of the hill. I wondered if his heart was made of similar granite. Since Mum had passed he hadn’t shed a tear. My sisters and I had gathered round, reminiscing, watching old family films, looking through old photographs. We laughed at the memories,…
Iain Kelly 