"Life lived without a struggle is not a life worth living for”, Ronald would declaim on a makeshift podium like an old wounded man. “At the end of each struggle is victory”, so he would say, with clenched fists and closed eyes, savoring the word “struggle”. His voice would trail off as if his last breath of air was taken away all too soon. His friends would laugh at him, as his struggles were convenient, and more imagined than real.
SHORT STORYBringing it all Back HomeMatthew Guerruckey
Matthew Guerruckey shares a story from the Drunk Monkeys vault, originally published on November 22, 2011. Dedicated with love to Rich Scroggs.
It was a day like any other. My head hurt and my heart ached. I decided to shower, hoping to rinse away some of the filth which clung to me like a second skin. I felt fat and old. I badly needed a haircut, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen now. I put on a clean pair of jeans and a yellow Lacoste shirt – a throwback to an easier time when something still worked. I wasn’t exactly depressed; a little mad, a little mean maybe, but mostly I thought of my life as a waste. I thought that somewhere there must be a better answer, but hard as I tried I came up empty.