Photo Tale: Ancestral Wish

Ancestral Wish

Writer/Director/Photographer: Christine Stoddard
Actor/Model: Tony Fuchs
Musicians: Stephen Palke & Luna Lark
QuailBellMagazine.com

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Words whispered upon a dampened deathbed, 
in the sweaty mist of a Glaswegian heat wave--
oh, an Irishman should never die outside his land!--
it was 1860, if I recall;
yes, this is what I said:

'You may pity me, the dying man, Cousin Anthony, my dear.
But it is you who are the graver sufferer, I fear,
for the world is not a pretty place
teeming with sweets and fair hens.

As my hours upon this earth ebb, 
I am overcome, overwhelmed, overtired
with and by and with
my knowledge.

I know your future sorrows.
I know your future pain.
Cousin Anthony,
you would not wish me to explain.

Yet I am a generous man and wish you no harm.
I would rather you become acquainted with Madame Mortality.
I would rather you do as I instructed.

You are young now.
A decade hence, you shall be still.

Listen to me, cousin child, for remember I am your elder.
Nearly gone, aye, but wiser in my time.

Visit the Necropolis in precisely ten years
following my departure.
Arrive an hour or two early, perhaps.
Prudence ought to be a cherished friend.

I will have left you a gift--a pocket watch, Cousin.
Seek it out; its ticking shall pound your ears.
That watch marks a critical hour.
It is then you must see my grave...

And discover my final gift to you.'

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