Sentinels
by Anil
94 viewsOne by one they all left, like migratory birds on the journey south, each taking a moment to look back and take in the surroundings one final time. The light outside profiled them against the darkness inside. They stood like solemn sentinels keeping guard over some hidden truth. I was in a corner, my territorial integrity intact from their invisible stares. Their extremities twitched and twirled from some internal rhythm. Or was it a new nervousness on their part? Perhaps they thought that I would leave my corner and claim more of the space outside. Or perhaps they feared that I would find the truth they had been hiding all along. I did not care for the answers. I was content to just sit there and observe their individual coronae visible in the momentary eclipse of detail and shadow.
Comments
that painted a dark, almost gothic, picture in my head. “detail and shadow,” that was my favorite part.
“The light outside profiled them against the darkness inside. ” ooooh very nice!
like viewing part of a film and hoping to read the rest.
I picture the sentinels as most people, including myself. Light on the outside, dark on the inside. The things we hide, the territory we occupy, and define as our own. We really don’t own that space; our ego’s do. You said you don’t care for the answers, but only wish to observe. Have they taught you anything?
One of things I love about the Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, the Matrix, etc, is that the sci-fi is a good disguise for the Real World.
They stood like solemn sentinels keeping guard over some hidden truth.
…yes it seems so…truth seems to be guarded by sentinels…you are allowed to know it only if you are ready for it.
darkly impressive amd a little ominous too. good. really good.
This bears some resemblance to a section of my dream of June 11. With the backlit crowd looking in on me.
Chilling the way you depict the sentinel’s presence as if they’re seen in negative—making them even more forboding and menacing. The lack of eyes ‘staring’ reminds me of the John Malkovich character in Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy.
transience: gothic is actually apt for it but not completely…it is something else…I simply dont know where this went when I started writing it…
lorena: very interesting analogy that…I suppose it is like that…
Mermaid: As usual I’m amazed by the depth of your interpretation…at the risk of disappointing you I’ve to confess that I did not conciuosly imply what you said when I wrote this…but your interpretation fits it completely…and what you said is very true…especially about the part of sci-fi reflecting the real world….I’m a big fan of sci-fi both in the literary and visual contexts…it is one of the best mediums and it honestly deserves more recognition particularly in the literary context…
gulnaz: yes, perhaps so…I guess until you learn to face the consequences of a truth you are not really ready to know it…
cocaine jesus: thank you…
finnegan: is it? then I’ll read that post…and to explain ‘invisible stares’ a bit I did not mean that they were blind or did not have eyes…I was refering to the position the narrator was in…he could ‘feel’ their stares but he could not actually see them because the ‘sentinels’ were profiled against the light….