Two angers long for the glitter and desolation of Berlin. Hanging near its portal, they provide gratuitous commentary on distressed passersby, looking to mirror their wounds or at least stuff them with the resulting orange tufts of anonymous air. One anger, distracted by their parallel monologues, stops to notice the other, his pocked skin and greasy locks, then catches a beam of green light mistaken for hope, but it was only a flash of chrome from a passing train. The anger lights up, the other asks for a smoke, to which the anger says, “Nope, not tonight. You ain’t getting lucky on my dime.”
There are no words for tomorrow, yesterday, hello, or cigarettes in this gateway. The portal snaps shut its aperture, leaving them to each other and infinity—a deep purple platform braided in plastics and littered with scrap heaps, smoke rising above them into the flaming red sky.
WOW KOSS! The angers! “distracted by their parallel monologues” “orange tufts of anonymous air” AND THAT ENDING is symphonic! LOVE THIS! How much to play this game? YES!
HOW MUCH FUN TO PLAY THIS GAME? YES!
Yes. I might have to do more. Thanks, Meg.
is a nice way to get jolted from oneself then regrounded.
So many wonderfully unexpected phrases here. “The anger lights up” and “There are no words for tomorrow” and “a deep purple platform braided in plastics.” We have a beam of light mistaken for hope, orange tufts of anonymous air. It’s lyrical and maddening and playful, and calm. Almost ambient in its coverage of atmosphere in that final paragraph. It feels sci-fi but also spy-thriller, and also very much its own genre. I looked up the film Wings of Desire, which added some context here. I think the title is a really fun nod to both the process and the original movie.
I suggested this to Meg as well, but consider treating this like its own movie, placing a genre in brackets below the title, and maybe ending it with something like “Runtime: 88 minutes.” What’s the RottenTomatoes score for this fake film you crafted? What does its sequel look like? How about the extended director’s cut? Nice to see this platform resonating with people this weekend!
The anger lights up … takes on a double meaning for me, illuminating anger 2 in a foxfire of false light, of false hope. Love the image.
Thanks. Yes, double meaning.
Koss,
This is a wonderful read. I especially liked the second paragraph, especially this line: “There are no words for tomorrow, yesterday, hello, or cigarettes in this gateway.” What a line! I wonder if you could start the piece this way?
Thanks for sharing this!
–JC
Thank you Jonathan. I don’t know. It may be the strongest, but then the cigarette scene is given away. Will play with it. It might work better as a sort of summary . . .
this is so atmospheric, and i was hooked with the first line. it has the same rhythm of its images of trains passing, smoke changing perception, a lot of little movements without moving, so a sadness … little infinite angers floating in the world is powerful to think about, too. i love your use of color throughout, too. really cool use of this prompt.
Thank you. I want to do more writing with “barely movements…’ I think about this a lot.