Saturday, November 22, 2008

Islands

No one came.

He rang the bell for almost an hour, his body swaying back and forth against the rope, a conversation with gravity, weight and counterweight. Yet no one stopped by to ask what had happened or who it was for.

Had it come to this, then? Exhausted, he climbed up to the bell-tower, stood looking down on the town, one hand resting against the surface of the great bell. Watched the streets emerge from the morning mist, the roofs of the houses like dull islands in a sea of swirling gray.

4 comments:

km said...

Sounds like the closing sequence of some classic French horror film.

Falstaff said...

km: Hmmm..really? The only film reference I was thinking of was that scene in Hitchock's Secret Agent, with Gielgud and Lorre up in the bell-tower. And that was just btw.

I take it you did get the Donne reference?

km said...

Ah, I missed that reference. Now it makes (a different) sense.

Like I said, the image to me suggested less existential isolation and something quite Gothic.

Vidya Jayaraman said...

Loved this one. Very nice Imagery. Brings to mind b&w images of an old bell tower, a raging storm (thats for the effect) and a solitary figure. A psychological horror (and not an external one) I think.