literature

Jared Williams

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winterkate's avatar
By
Published:
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Literature Text

Jared Williams was a boy I barely knew. He had
cornstraw-blond hair and a jaw shaped
like a Lego stepped on one too many times.
He listened to bad music during lunch time,
crap electronic that always managed
to clear a six-foot perimeter around his
five-and-seven inches frame, his
rickety legs and broken wire-hanger shoulders and
gray Vans that wrapped around his feet like ghosts and
his green green eyes like grass underneath glass,
thin wire frames that always hung crooked.
He always hung crooked.
Just a little bit.

Jared Williams was a boy I barely knew. He had
six different illnesses by the time he was seven
and even when he was five he could tell you which cancer
had come back by the colors had to swallow every day,
to keep the dragons from burning his weak lungs away.

Four surgeries by nine and he could map you
incisions - even the ones that left no scars,
welled no red, from no scalpels.

The dragon monsters came back
in the back of his head. Oh the things that they whispered.
Oh how their love cut too deep.

Jared Williams was a boy I barely knew.
He drove to spot 611 every day before school,
Never called 911 - maybe everything just flipped
when the dragons hissed softly secrets
he really could hear. In Spanish class,
I heard him mumble in a language that was not ours -
not humans'. The dragons.  

December 9th he drank gasoline. Drove school slowly
and swallowed a lit match. His lungs winged conflagrations.
I barely knew.
You know what? Goddamn this whole watchers and comments thing. I'm going to write and if you want to read, fine.
© 2012 - 2024 winterkate
Comments66
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flummo's avatar
Right in the gut. You wielded your words fearlessly in telling this story; this is truly incredible and moving and I'm sorry you had to go through something like this and that you never really knew him and that the dragons got him at all. :( My cousin almost committed suicide about a month ago but thank god we were able to prevent it. She's on the mend and I think things are only going to keep getting better from here.

"he could show you
a timeline of his life from the places
the dragon monsters came back
in the back of his head
the things that they whispered
and all the places their love cut too deep."