The Sixth Sentence

by Ed Rivers

The first sentence caught my eye. It seemed to be about me. It seemed to be written by somebody who knows me. It used some of my favorite words, like "aphonia” and “aposiopesis.” Although just six words it seemed to go on forever, racing through my brain and torso and arms and legs and across the sands under my feet and through the sands of Mars and across the seas of Venus and around Jupiter’s rainbow rings and over the black rocks on Pluto. Six, two, five, one, four, three––now, at last, I can hear the silence.

6S

Ed Rivers teaches English at the University of Colorado-Boulder.