EXISTENCE IN WHITE By John Williams "It is the duty of this court To award sole custody To the mother Court is adjourned." I get up Refuse to shake hands With the scumbag lawyer Next to me He wasn’t even worth my money I was going to loose anyway My children Have been taken away From me My life has Been taken away Nothing else matters I get into my Worn out car And head home To my worn out Apartment I stop at a Store By a couple of six packs Some cigarettes A box of matches I hand the Arab behind the counter Twenty bucks "Keep the change" I climb the depleted Stairs up to my apartment Four floors up First floor I smell someone’s Cooking Smells good Probably the nice old lady In apartment 145 Smells like she is burning Some meat Second floor The couple in apartment 203 Are having another argument In about an hour the police will be called And he’ll be taken away again And she’ll have the kids She won’t cook for them Because she just spent her check On a quick fix That’s what the arguments are Always about Third floor The sounds of Paid pleasure Come from Molly’s apartment Number 316 I paid for her once Didn’t enjoy it that much Fourth floor I see an eviction notice On my door "Damn forgot to pay this week I’ll take care of it tomorrow" I open the door And gaze and take in My new existence The walls are black With patches of what once was white Showing threw here and there Its one room With the bathroom In a closet in the corner Moving box’s are scattered Everywhere Haven’t gotten around to Unpacking them yet The kitchen is nothing But a stove and a sink With a couple of shelves Thrown into the mix And a refrigerator in the corner I place the six packs inside And close the metal door I lay down on my bed And pick up the first Of the many box’s I see my children’s faces Looking up at me My daughter In her junior high school Prom Dress She’s almost 15 Just started getting into Boys Becoming a woman My son Just turned 3 Holding a baseball glove Probably waiting for me To toss him the ball Then I see a picture Of my wife and I Taken on our wedding day We were so in love then Our heads filled with fantasies About our future That didn’t last long I can still hear her saying "I love you" I take all the pictures Out of there cases And place them atop the stove I watch as the pictures dissolve I see the faces twist and fade I imagine that I can hear there screams I smell the smoke coming from the ashes Of my life I fall asleep And dream I hear police sirens Out side Probably taking the husband away I fall back to sleep Moments latter Police officers bust down my door They bound me and cuff me And take me to jail I ask for my phone call So I can call my wife The officers look at me Like I just said something disgusting They don’t let me call They don’t tell me what I have done I ask and I ask But still they won’t tell me I'm in a small room Waiting for my lawyer The same one from this morning He comes in Sits down Shuffles some papers "Will you please call my wife?" I ask him Again the same funny look "Do you remember anything?" Thats a stupid question "Yes…now will you PLEASE call my wife!" "I'm sorry but Your wife and children are dead They burned to death in a fire" My vision whirls The room spins crazily Then darkness And nightmares Faces burning Fire raging I wake up in a clod sweat I try to move but I can’t My arms are tied down I look at the room Padded and white About seven feet across I look down at my self I’m wearing a straight jacket Faces gaze down at me Threw a window In the door "This case is a sad one." I heard a doctor say "He lost custody of his kids Apparently he cracked because Be burned down there house Killing them and his ex-wife." I get up and scream At the top of my lungs "I DIDN"T KILL MY WIFE!!!" The doctor gazes at me Threw the window "Clearly delusional… Now this next case is rather…" I sit back down And gaze at my new existence Existence in white -End-
so sad i like this one; it seems sort of honest and real, not padded with long descriptions and hidden meanings but happy to tell a gritty story well, with confidence that the story is enough by itself.
You wrote it well. I don't care much for the story, which seems like every hardluck movie Ive ever seen, but you wrote it well.
