Rear View
by Jules Archer
The man of a thousand faces was defunct. He could no longer see the used-to-see. He had spilled his blood and scabbed his knees for the candles on the altar and the commandments in his field. He would preach no more. He hung the rosary over the hook of his rearview mirror and shifted into drive.
This is very concise and powerful. I admire your ability to capture so much with so few words.
Nice micro. Good closing image.
I especially like the arc between the mythical man image at the start and the pastoral defeat at the rear. where's the sequel!
I enjoyed this very much.
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drive
dam, this is good. Mucho respecto (that's polish slang, btw)
More, please!
A man being "defunct" (echo of buffalo bill in the Cummings poem) instead of "deceased" works well here in a poem where he is as much car as man.
Love the parallelism in sentence #2.
Well! There ya go! Writers conference. Totally worth it. Powerful little piece. Like getting knocked on the head by an acorn while sitting under the oak tree meditating! Bonk! *
Wow! *
A pithy story with power. Peace *