The Bear and Man

It stood up on its hind legs towering over Man with its ferocious roar and menacing claws. What was Man to do but fall to the ground and play dead? Bear was approximately 290kg. One swipe with its claws and Man's brains would be pulverized.

If only it wasn't so......

----------------------------------

Bear was just a little cub when Man found it. It was all alone without its mama. It was cute and adorable. And perfect as Man worked in the circus. The wheels in Man's brain began to turn. The 'ka-ching' sound reverberating in Man's brain. The glamour of being known as 'The Bear Man'! Man began training Bear to walk on its hind legs. Each day practicing, pushing Bear to walk. Never ceasing. The cracking of the whip and the never ending 'UP! UP!!!! UP!!!!!!!!!!!' Bear had to walk. And walk it had to.

And finally one day, Bear walked. Man was so blinded by the newly minted coins in his mind that Man did not realise that Bear was now a towering 6-foot-killing machine when it was up on its hind legs.

On that glamorous and glittering opening act of Bear, it roared and roared and walk and walked and pulled the whole tent down. There was chaos and never ending screaming. Man ran for his life. But Bear caught up with him within seconds.

Man immediately fell to the ground and played the dead. Bear the towering giant walked and walked and walked around Man but Man was too afraid to watch. Help finally came and the zinging of bullets pierced the encompassing forest and hit Bear in the heart. Bear crashed on Man and they both died.

'You can never tame the wild.
And you can never tame Man.'
- Girl Alive

Forever F

Fabulously, freaking fastidious,

Faultless, faddy and flaky,

Flamboyant

Was Freddie of Fourth Avenue.

Freddie was fussy, fat and foul-mouthed,

Favors fable over fact.

Follows feelings,

Faithful?

That's a facade!

Freddie flaunts,

Famously facinorous,

Factious,

Forever fabricates.

Foes more than friends.

Freddie was fame and fortune

Filthy rich

His faith was a falacy

Freddie the false-faced!

February came,

And Freddie fancied a fair fawn,

And fiery was the fair maiden

Freddie flew France to her

The fair-head said, 'Forgo the fat.'

So Freddie fasted to lose the fat

Freddie fixed his flagging flubber

Faithful like the furry friends

With her, he falters

He fancied-sick her,

Fantasied excessively about her,

Behaved fatuously with her.

She was f**ked up,

And yet he facilitated her every demand

Bought her a fleet of cars,

He wanted to be her Flora and Fauna.

He friended every friend on her Facebook (a Faux Pas),

Flattered her father

Finished her mother's flawed and flavourless fig pie,

Oh, she was his fair and foxy fairy!

Fairy tale it was not.

She wanted him to fade away,

The flame was flaked out

He fell from grace

Forbade him to even furnish her with a floral gift.

He fell apart,

He floundered, 

He fainted, 

Fatigued hit him. 

There wasn't going to be a flower girl.

He had flunked. 

He was a failure.

His fantasy flopped.

He was a foreclosure.

He faded away,

He was Freddie.

He was Forever F.

The Marionette

A jerk here. And a jerk there. A pull here. And a pull there. That was how 'he' moved. Never on 'his' own. Not since the day 'he' was created. If 'his' master wanted 'him' to jump, 'he' jumped. If he wanted 'him' to fall, 'he'd' fall. Never once of 'his' own will. 

Tossed aside like a discarded doll at the end of the day, 'he' would lay in the dark corner of the cabinet with 'his' leg tangled around 'his' neck wondering the purpose of 'his' existence. Until the next day when 'he' would be picked up and dangled like a carrot in front of the audience oooohing and aaahhhing at his clumsiness. It was a mockery of 'his' existence. 'He' should live a better life than this.

But how could 'he'? 'He' was like a cripple. Unable to move on 'his' own. Depending on the mercy of Gestapo. If 'mercy' is a word that exists in this world. If 'he' was peeling or had an injury, more paint would be lathered on 'him'. No effort or even the slightest decency in giving 'him' a minor repair. 'He' was after all a marionette. 

'He' had enough. For far too long 'he' had been bullied and controlled. It was time 'he' did something with 'his' life that brought 'him' joy. But nothing brought 'him' joy except being free of those ugly, mouldy strings that manipulated 'him'. But without them, 'his' existence was nulled. 

'He' purposely fell across the scissors when Gestapo flung 'him' across the room onto the shelf after a lackluster performance. No fault of 'his' since Gestapo was slurring and couldn't even walk a straight line. But then, when was Gestapo ever in the wrong? Soon snoring was heard at the other corner of the room. 'He' immediately got to work.

Bit by bit 'he' sawed off the strings that bound 'his' life to slavery. Little by little 'he' worked to free 'himself'. 'He' ignored the cuts and the nicks. They didn't matter. Layers of thick paint were shaven off. And beneath 'he' saw 'his' true self. Plain and made of wood. But true to 'himself'. 

When the final string snapped, he never felt more free. For once, he felt dignified. He gingerly stood up and gave the world a final performance on his own. He jumped. The ride down was the best thing he had ever experienced. He was free. Even if it was for a three seconds.

THUD!

HE was free.

The Crack

Before they could even begin, it appeared. Like an insidious disease. It crept in like a thief in the night. It came so unexpectedly that no one saw it. No one had thought that it would happen. 

But it did.

At first it was as fine as a hairline. In fact everyone who saw it brushed it aside thinking it was a strand of hair that had gone astray. 

But it wasn't.

And everyone thought it didn't matter much. 

As it widened, the humans found a way to overcome it. At first they could skip over it, hop over it. As it grew wider the younger humans took it to be their new skateboarding hangout. 

Soon it grew as wide as a chasm. It wasn't a problem. The humans constructed a bridge over it. First it was a wooden bridge. And then a new concrete bridge was built. And in the end it was replaced with a titanium bridge.

Of course there were some who fell into the chasm. But they rationalized that it was their bad luck that had caused their death.

It never occurred to the humans that they needed to fix the crack. It took too much effort. Too much work. Too much thinking. Building something over it was much quicker and easier. If it grew wider, build a longer bridge. Build a more magnificent bridge so that the chasm wouldn't be noticed. The brightness and luminosity of the bridge's brilliance would divert the attention from the chasm. 

And then it happened.

It gave way. The chasm turned into a never-ending-abyss. And it continued to expand and it ate up its surroundings.  Its appetite could not be quelled the moment it tasted land. Its thirst could not be quenched. It was ravenous for more. It lusted and hungered for more and more and more.

And it couldn't be stopped. 

And it all began with a hairline crack...