The Corridor
(An Internal
Reflection)
I see the
world as a shopping mall.
People meander and live in the mall, wonder and wander through the promenades, meet and socialize in the grand halls - live their lives on stage - their audience the food courts and grand foyers.
I don't want to sound cynical. There is nothing particularly or specifically wrong with this. I mean, this is life, right? Yes, it's artificial, yes it's a social construct, a facade, but it isn't a lie.
We still need to live our lives. If not this construct, if not this facade, then another. It's a necessity.
But I have always lived on the outside, on the fringe. Not quite outcast, but neither wholly accepted. Not completely ostracized, but viewed cautiously and hesitantly.
Similar to Wells's world of the Morlocks, there is more than meets the Eloi's eyes; something outside the Shoppers' peripheral sight.
I live and traverse the interior utility hallways behind the stores and fronts, beyond the Potemkin Village - inventories, machinery, deliveries, bay-doors, the far less polished and pretty utilitarian places. The spaces between the spaces. The back corridors.
Ask me on a bad day and you will hear a yarn of sorrow, rejection, loneliness, exclusion and ostracisation. But in truth, there is a certain freedom, a certain liberty in this. I sit on the cusp of two worlds, all the wiser and better for it. It allows one to experience things where others would not. To see perspectives, to go places and do things others cannot or dare not.
I've encountered precious few like this.
Michel Weatherall
A native of
Ottawa, Michel Weatherall grew up as an army-brat living in Europe and Germany
and has since travelled extensively.
Having over 30 years experience in the print/publishing industry, the transition to self-publishing was a natural step with his publication company, Broken Keys Publishing. He has published 6 novels and 2 collections of poetry.
Other work
(the poems “Sun & Moon,” "Purgation," "This Burden I
Bear," “Eleven's Silent Promise," the sci-fi short story “Rupture”
and the essays "The Doctrine of Fear" and "Ebook
Revolution?") have all appeared in Ariel Chart's online journal, as well
as a theological essay (“The Voice of Sophia”) in American theologian Thomas
Jay Oord's "The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account
of Providence" (2015)
Weatherall's current books in print are,
The Symbiot
30th Anniversary, The Nadia Edition,
Necropolis,
The Refuse
Chronicles,
Symphonies of
Horror: Inspirational Tales by H.P. Lovecraft: The Symbiot Appendum,
Ngaro's
Sojourney,
A Dark Corner
of My Soul (poetry),
Sun &
Moon (poetry),
His
publishing company, Broken Keys Publishing has 2 anthologies:
Thin Places:
The Ottawan Anthology, &
Love &
Catastrophē Poetrē.
Honours and
Awards include
Winner of the
2020 - 2021 Faces of Ottawa Awards for Best Author
Winner of the
2020-2021 Faces of Ottawa Awards for Best Publisher
2021Best of
the Net Award Nominee (for Poetry: Purgation)
2020-21
Parliamentary Poet Laureate Nominee
2020 Best of
the Net Award Nominee (Poetry: This Burden I Bear)
2019 Pushcart
Prize Nominee (for Poetry)
2019 FEBE
Award Nominee for Creative Arts
2019 CPACT
Awards Nominee for Entertainment Excellence (Arts)
2019 CPACT
Awards Nominee for Small Business Excellence (Broken Keys Publishing)
https://brokenkeypublishin.wixsite.com/michelweatherall
https://m.facebook.com/michel.weatherall
Twitter:
@brokenkeys9
Instagram:
@weatherallmichel