The Vortex

The closer one gets to the center of the vortex,
past the calm, one sees the madness of it all,
the people screaming for their lives,
the realization how random it all is,
at the center of our lives just chance,
whether one lives or dies depending on nothing but chance,
no sense at all, no meaning,
but as we move away from the center
towards remembrance, we make sense of it all,
because like God, we need purpose, we need order.
At the extreme center of the vortex in the middle is complete quiet.
Some people call that nirvana.

Jean Jones teaches English as Second Language at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, NC. He has an MFA in Creative Writing Poetry from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. He has been published in Horror Zine as well as Aphelion Webzine among others. He has a book published by St Andrews Press from St Andrews College in Laurinburg, NC entitled The Birds of Djakarta.

Find more by Jean Jones in the Author Index.

Comment on this story in the Aphelion Forum

Return to Aphelion's Index page.