Oblivion for One
By Max Guernsey, III

Stop all the clocks?
Why bother?

This is the end...

...of life.
...of love.
...of joy.
...of pain.
...of experience.

At least, for one.  At 2:30 pm, today, one of our cats, Seelie, died.

For those of us left here, we go on; some more affected than others.  Yet, that's not really the point... is it?  Mourning is an inherently selfish thing.  We lament our loss; our pain; our experience; but those things all pale in comparison to what Seelie has lost: existence itself.

She is no more.  To her, there is no more "to be."  There is no more her for there to be no "to be" to.  Nothing.  No experience.  No love.  No joy or hate.  The world does not exist.

So I say "Stop all the clocks?  No need.  Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone?  No call."

For Seelie, the clocks have stopped and the dogs have stopped barking.  From her perspective, those things all happened and more: The entire universe, including herself, ceased to exist the moment she died.

Who will be next?