Day 56

Day 56:

I am an empty shelf. There is nothing on me at all, apart from some dust, but that doesn't weigh much. I sit on my nice metal wall brackets, tightly and securely drilled into the wall. That's a relief, because I'd hate to fall off and get chipped, not that there is anything on me to make me fall off.

You know, I'm not actually a 'shelf' per se. It would be more apt to describe me as 'a solid piece of wood, resting upon two metal brackets'. I'm not actually attached to the brackets, I simply lie across them, my plank extending beyond their confines by around 5 inches on either side. I have heard various comments from the elitist shelves on the opposite wall. They are varnished, and have a bunch of silly knick-knacks carelessly strewn upon them. They shout the most horrible things across the room. Once, as more ugly things were piled on top of them, one shelf shouted "Oi, where are your trophies, you plank?". 

I try not to let their insults get to me: sure, the human may prefer to put their 'trophies' on them rather than me, but I don't have to bear any load at all, while the metal slowly wears down and displaces their screws. They even have drinks placed on them from time to time, with no coasters, and residue on the bottom. I watch with great pleasure as the unwiped moisture slowly seeps through their protective layer, and slowly rots their wooden, soulless cores. They may be being used now, but one day, they will buckle under all that pressure. Those screws won't be enough to hold them in, unlike my beautiful brackets.

One day, the moisture will get to them, or one more useless ornament will prove to many, and they will SNAP under the strain, and clatter to the floor in a splintering shower of pain. A failure, their dismembered and crumbling pieces will be consumed by the huge, noisy sucking machine, and the planks that are left will be carted away to the eternal fire pit in the town, where they will die a slow and agonising death. 

And what will become of the trophies then? Well, I suppose they would have to go on me for a while. I wouldn't mind, as long as they don't put drinks on me too...