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4. Dog Tag
Why keep the dog tag with his little name 'Toby' on it, preserved like a heart dipped in silver or an object washed up on the beach. The tag will outlive my bones and most likely the bones of anyone else who holds it. That is the curse of the tag. It says 'read the dead dog's name and I will outlive your bones,' and so it does somewhere. Even if you no longer have it in your possession or are no longer holding it, somewhere you know that the dog tag is outliving your bones, and you never forget where it might be hidden or who might be reading it next. There have been so many Toby's in the word that it has became a nameless word. Perhaps I shouldn't have called him that or anything else, but instead let the wind call his name, as windy as it was when I ended his life here. In the end there is no end and nothing to call anything by its name. Toby what does anything mean to anybody here, accept for your small silver tag resting in my palm, less that your eye and all your emotions? The stars ate them up, whilst your dish had an ant in it. Your eye had an ant in it, but the star remained calm and collected. He's dead and gone just like I will be some day soon. So why would I want to hold onto a stupid little tag, when all I need is him and all that remains is a name. |
