Rock Bottom

ROCK BOTTOM

The almost motionless water reeks of rot and decay; a reminder that nothing lasts. How do things once so sparkling and alive, so energetic and optimistic reach this stage where anything that remains is putrid, decomposing, worthless?

The last of the sun’s rays cast irridescent shadows over the ink-black surface; highlighting the unidentifiable flotsam and jetsam. Waste from other people’s lives; forgotten, broken, not needed. What to do when life itself matches the same description; when all is lost, the last glimmer of hope extinguished?

         Broken twigs and mouldy branches from the skeletal trees on the desolate river bank float aimlessly on the murky surface. Slowly they twizzle and turn as if they have no idea what direction to take any more. What happens when life offers no more openings, there’s nowhere to go, nothing to aim for? Just eternity stretching ahead; nothing to do but witness the broken mind travelling in never ending spirals of regret, remorse, unbearable loss.

         There’s no evidence of life on or below the water; yet it seems something sinister lingers. Whether the feeling stems from within or without matters not when the psyche is as polluted and lifeless as the filthy water below.

         A battered supermarket trolley, surrounded by green froth and rancid debris leans against a weather-beaten rock as if the water cannot be bothered to stretch up and suck it completely below the surface. Stranded like someone wanting to be out of it all, but unable to discover a way to sink completely out of sight.

         A sudden movement; the glint of mean, hungry eyes as a rat scurries for cover, disturbed by some unknown force. Ultimately, when all is lost, there’s no longer any place to hide, no escape, just a tortuous road with no end, resembling this gloomy, hostile water stretching ahead as far as the eye can see.