You called it scape,
a nest,
a shelter,
even a challenge,
but you couldn’t
get familiarized
with a plastic label
attached to your chest,
that despite having your name
written on it,
you never determined
as your own.
She tiers piles
of old-fashioned shirts and pants,
sweeping floors that have been stained
with the poison
that customers carry on their shoes
at this time of year.
Your face sticks
to the cold window
searching for a sign,
but your eyes look confused,
for they no longer
distinguish the outside,
as if the nest
were just one big,
really huge,
parade:
the fashion exhibition.
Nobody cares if the gun
is always located
(in such a practical manner)
inside a drawer,
a box,
or a closet,
useful and poor
but inconsolable
for narrative reasons.
All they care about
is knowing
that the jerk was willing
to do so from the beginning
so they can ask themselves,
“Why did he do it?”
and answer,
“He’s an idiot.”
In the meantime,
all fragments
of the broken mirror,
sprayed on the floor,
seeing them,
thinking,
that now your hands
won’t be able to use
the shop’s cash register.
—Emil Osorio Llanos
Bio
Emil Osorio Llanos is a graduate of Black Maria Film School in Bogotá, Colombia. He currently works with the audiovisual research group VIDENS from Universidad del Atlántico and as a freelance videographer. His theoretic interests lie in extracting sentimental components from image and sound, rather than rational structures from a lifestyle based on current dynamics of social interaction and production—information over knowledge, sensation over thought, action over reflection—so as to analyze the current state of humanity. Llanos was a finalist in the Spanish short story contests Aenigma and CRAPE and contributed to the 2011 CUNY graduate conference “Jesters and Gestures: Irony at a Crossroads” in New York City. He lives in Barranquilla, Colombia where he studies philosophy and works on numerous projects.