Elegy for the Rich, by Aggelianna Tsitouridi

Still Life With Lobster, by Nicolaes Van Gelder (Netherlands) 1664

Elegy for the Rich

Red liquid dripped from the golden platter, the shade of lone
cherries drowning in acid. The food sat still on the dining table,
rotting unattended. White sand had grown on the grapes. The lobster
leaked a bitter, metallic taste. After that first sip of wine, their
bodies crumpled on the carpet. They wore their best tuxes, petticoats
and dresses, with faces pale like a bone left beneath the sun. Eyes
open, stared at the ceiling. The peeled orange had started to smell.
Solitude engulfed it. Decay became a companion to the old country
house. A stench of death flooded the air. Only the rubies laced around
the corpses’ throats still blazed, reflecting the chandeliers’ gleam.
Two days later the help would return, to find nothing but all that
remained of that Christmas dinner. The one that the family agreed to
be their final.

Aggelianna Tsitouridi

Aggelianna Tsitouridi is an unknown writer from Greece, currently studying Classics in University of Cyprus. She hasn't been published before, has only won a few school poetry contests and one in university with a microfiction piece titled "Absinthe". She is a new writer, that is focused on studying and painting, and for the past year experimenting with long form content that she hopes to push towards publishing in the future.