Death’s Grin

The eve Death smiled at me I had no choice but to smile back. It was more of an awkward grin of the sort, the kind you might see from a person that could think of nothing else really clever to do… but I wanted to imagine it caught Death off guard — not totally flustered to the brink of unhinged, but at least to the extent that it caused him to break stride and chase the desire to continue looking cool.

“You strike the pose of a very solemn and confident figure, brother Death… if I’m seeing you at all then it is all surely lost for me, don’t you think? Why would you salt my demise with a drastically uncalled-for sinister smile?”

“Because I’m death; I’m inconsiderate and selfish; my gestures torture to the very hilt and reverberate long after you pass. I always get my prey.”

“Really? And what makes you so confident about that?”

“Because I’m a rapist.”

And Death grinned an even bigger toothless grin to which I responded with a spirited laugh and slap of the knee. Death balked at my response and appeared to reveal a rather irritated edge. He had the biggest toothless grin, Death did. I could see by it that death had been dead for a wicked-long time, a time that not even the robustness of enamel and bone could endure.

“Have a heart, brother Death; you’re getting your way here: you drew the long straw and I the short. Your gloating doesn’t become you in the least. I rather find it most unbecoming of an entity of your reputation and character. Grant me a modicum of dignity in my final seconds.”

But Death reared back with folded arms and toothless bouche… “But that I cannot do, for I am inconsiderate and with timing consistently rude!” he bellowed. Death had become annoyed with me, a thing I had not intentionally stoked, though one I met with hope’s glimmer, as Death was presenting himself as a force but flawed.

“Death, my brother, as you stand beguiling, my sad fate here into smiling… feign would I fathom thy nature specific, but I do sense a kink in your mail most terrific!” But oh, how Death did object, and my words in their irreverence yea did dissect. He shuffled and howled and bustled and growled:

“Nonsense!!” he boomed and, projecting a toothless frown, he did fall down and break his crown as nil came tumbling after. Death frowned a most saddened frown at the happiness there to be found, it was mine and mine alone as the angst in Death had grown.

“I’ve lost this one then, that I did; keep vigil next time, I do bid,” and Death sauntered off with head drooped low, he scoffed and snorted and bitched, you know: it’s not the cough that carries you off; it’s the coffin they carry you off in.

And They sang: “He cheated Death of his last breath we rejoice!”

But I urged: “It’s defeat rather than cheat — that I must voice!”

I sliced my ties and ran like the wind,

no glance back at Death’s miss again

Let Death eat cake wallow and cry,

I’ll meet him again in the days by and by

I can’t dwell on the past, the scythe, or the crime,

just hope I can smile again the very next time.

By Almighty God and with honor,

geo sends