The Corduroy Mtn. Luck Brian Alan Ellis "Love is pain, such sharp and ridiculous pain." I say this as she feeds me what my uncle would call a "knuckle sandwich." "Love is a jealous hell hound digging its claws into your throat." My blood feels warm as it swims beneath the swelling of my flesh. "Love is the softener of man, the immortal undoing of one's strength and character." She has started kicking and stomping me-first in the groin, then everywhere else. "In Love, Loss trails closely behind; it sits perched in Love's shadow, waiting to strike at any given moment." I nearly choke from swallowing my front teeth, which were broken from all that kicking and stomping. "O the shame of-" I am interrupted by the sound of my ribs snapping. "O the shame of sentiment," I try again, "O the possibility of Love left grieving beneath a hopeless moon." It is now very difficult to speak, to breathe, when half the wind has been pummeled out of me. But I must continue. Yes, I must. "Broken, I bury myself within the terror of an empty night as-" I pause to scream as her thumb gouges out my left eye "-one thousand phantom birds cry out." I know now that she has left me to die alone. I know this because I had watched her go with my one good eye. And it is getting very dark. And all I can do now is wonder, though it is nearly impossible to pinpoint, where all the good luck has gone. previous | next Added to The Corduroy Mtn. on January the Fifteenth in the year two thousand and nine.