My Rose Amongst the Thorns

Daily Flash Fiction Challenge  Entry
01-27-25

There lies betwixt the fathomless expanses of the blissful dreamer and the wakeful toiler, a space, nay, a universe whence man has ne’er trod. Therein, only the unquieted and restless mind wanders upon its cold and stony shores. I oft stumble my way there in exhausted half-slumber, plunging through fathomless void of regret and desire – the should-haves and the what-ifs. There to dwell upon those dreams now lost, and those loves yet to be loved. Wherein the miasma of unknowns and silent screams, I sow seeds of my own discontent. ‘Tis an affliction of spirit, sickly and frail, yet sharp and relentless.

Therein, I live, amongst the unnamed and unwanted outcasts, the ugly animals and broken things. I lay foundations, brick after God-forsaken brick, into soured soil of an earth that detests our presence. Whence among the man-like things that scurry about the streets, the spiders crawl, carrying on the charade of a life fulfilled, yet miserable and wanting.

Therein, we are no different. Sad, but aware. We wear no masks, nor paint no regal pictures. Thus to practice this scraping existence to find, one day, our promised land. I dare to say I have found mine.

Fair yet unfair she is, but soft and warm with the voice as comforting as feathers floating on quiet streams. Whence I live in a bramble of thorns, I have thus found the one and only rose – delicate, perfect and sweetly perfumed in blissful life to which that soured soil seems but a distant, clouded memory.

That isn’t true.

I tell myself, fearful that I might cast myself again upon those distant, desolate shores.

But it is true. Where my lot is in this life, I care not, only that it is with her. My terminus – my beautiful rose amongst the thorns.

Word Count - 299