When the deranged pilgrim is mature and sets forth his sons it is not from his seed that they are begotten but of the poison itself. The cuckolded ghoul does not recognize his image in them, nor do the sons recognize their progenitor. Behold a line that is nothing but a vessel for poison, a vessel of multi-generational ambition with no end. A black mold has hitched a ride in their minds. A morel fungus, a relic full of ancient memory. So the poison sets to work in the prosperity that was once poverty. It does this to the next generation as they are just infants. When the father opens his mouth it is now to speak on behalf of the beckoning void. Poison in the newborn’s ears dictates what is heard and unheard. The creed now digested across the life of the pilgrim is easier to absorb in the next generation. It is a warm pulp suckled freely from a diseased teat. Greed is a sin easily inherited.

         Now this poisonous changeling is not bathing in the void like its father. But it does feed greedily on the wealth that is hungry, the vengeance that is unprovoked. It is a malleable thing, a baby. They enter the world to receive care and love, or rather they are programmed to determine that whatever they receive first is care and love, like a duckling lays eyes on its mother. So it is that the abuse laid on its brand new senses become its fuel. So an unholy duality is formed. The father, the original pioneer to have come from nothing, and the son birthed from the empty riches. The former imposes its ‘love’ , its toxic expectation. The latter toils teetering near mental aberration. It does not realize there are other worlds.

        Among the fray a third arrives. It is thrown like its father before it into the prosperous abyss and mistakes it for dearth. Its potential rises above that of its father. Fulfilled, powerful and rising it also crosses a threshold. A shift of perspective, the balance wobbles and bounces back violently. A circuit is closed, a sensor tripped. There is a reversion to the mean… Nature’s only way of being benevolent…

        The grandson leaps out of its poisonous ancestry and regards with sudden disgust the fabric it inherits. Reborn and struggling, the third born attempts to reciprocate with an unconditional love which is rejected. They attempt to build bonds that have not existed in the family. To stop and rest and enjoy the work that is done. Even perhaps to share…

        Yet a wall is met, the wall reeks of power and domination, the only language it understands. The change of perspective may not travel up, it can only trickle down, slowly changing, slowly creating a new way to love and interact. The third born during this time suffers. They may only breathe in poison and yet are required to breathe out pure air. Cutting it out, being free, escaping it takes a lifetime. Born into it, die to fall out of it.

The legacy of this third son is heavy and infected but he must use it to prosper. He is condemned to use those very instruments of corruption. As he leverages these riches he feels his ancestral instincts cling to him like dusty cobwebs. It suffocates him, drowns him and follows him as he wanders the companionless landscape. It begs him to do better, to bloat it beyond what is natural. The poison boils and writhes and lashes out. It’s a sentient being, maybe, a family member on its own. It must be painfully extricated. So familiarity becomes a shackle itself hampering rebirth. However even in the most difficult moments there are glimpses of that burning desire for change, a pathetic but shining flicker of that dream almost extinguished by bitterness and anger.

Will the table be clean when the fourth generation arrives? Can that which is pure be nourished by a stained spoon? Brooding, the grandson determines that his name shall not pass on until he himself is free.

*****

Jihoon Suh is a high school student currently attending Chadwick International School in South Korea. He enjoys exploring human behavior and emotional expression through writing and storytelling. Although he has not been previously published, he is passionate about creative nonfiction and hopes to reach broader audiences by sharing personal reflections through narrative essays.