SHORT FICTION
I have a Tattoo. It is on my right shoulder, it is a circle, roughy three centimetres in diameter and, at first glance, may be mistaken for a “Yin/ Yang” symbol which it is, in fact, not, but it is the equivalent symbol / idea from the musical “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”, which as you can surmise, affected me quite deeply. It is simple line art in blue and when I saw it on my shoulder in the shower this morning, I was strongly reminded of the blue stamps on the carcasses hanging on hooks in the local butcher shop, back then.
My Mother would nudge me, point at the hollowed-out bull’s corpses and say “Artists used to learn how to paint people in the Abattoirs – the colours are the same, the models would stay still and not fidget – Rembrandt trained in the Butchers!”
I felt the reverence in my mother’s voice and knew that he must have been a great painter, at the same time knowing that the subject matter was vastly beyond my abilities and the kindy paint I had access to at the time.
I said so.
She said, and I quote;
“Plenty of time for that,” and hugged me to hug away the crushing weight of the future that suddenly toppled on me. Even as the past now seems a vast unwieldily object weighing on my shoulders.
With no hug.© 2025 Alex Rieneck All Rights reserved.
This will be continued, please use the “Comments” section to encourage me
The Gleet Net 