The Common Man Bares His Emotions
His mother’d always warned him not to bare his emotions. It’s a heartless world, she’d always say, and the wolves are just waiting for a sign of weakness to devour your pathetic soul. The common man brushed this advice aside, though, and recited a love poem he’d written for the girl who worked at the flower shop whom he’d been in touch with off and on since highschool. His poem was a bit too indirect and poetic, though, and afterwards he had to explain to the girl that it was a love poem and that she shouldn’t take the imagery about the knife and the violet death-shroud literally. The common man then realized that one should not bare one’s emotions when the reaction is in doubt—the girl avoided his eyes and informed him that she was engaged. The common man chuckled nervously and mumbled that it was just a joke and got the heck out of there. After listening to a particular song by Simon and Garfunkle, he decided to seek comfort from the whores on seventh avenue, but he wasn’t quite sure how one actually went about that, so he just watched television.
- D. Richard Scannell
