these days

We sit on pavements instead of benches, shaking scarred hands with Styrofoam cups seeking coins and courage, corrosion eroding from the gaps in our teeth where bone used to hang. Nobody listens to people when they’re one step closer to death.

We talk amethysts and triangles and combat and big open fields and dreams we think the government will help make come true, even though they’re half the reason we're sitting on the pavement in the first place. But, people don’t want to hear about UFOs and time served. People don’t care that we fought the war abroad and at home. People want well-mannered tooth bearing folks with no scabbed elbows or fingernail beds. People want normal so they have something to compare themselves to, something to work towards, a goal, something they can call progress, or attribute to a movement…even though they're mostly motion and emotionless.

We know they can see the smoke seething from our gums, and they know we can see them shun their heads and jokes away from our stinking disgrace. We know they call us crustys and druggies and scizos and losers and lazy fuck tards and shit bag, and they think about pissing on us when we're finally asleep in a doorway and they're stumbling home drunk to the 5th avenue McMansion their daddy bought them.  We know you're looking and wondering what went wrong and how we deal and why we lug our lives around instead of settling down. They pity our "poor" pooches and weep bedtime tears about how unlucky and unfed they must be, then rant on their precious Facebook page about the injustices in our society and animal cruelty. The next post is a caked up make up sorority squat encouraging/supporting injections and inflations. 

You see, we seek shelter when we need it, food when we're hungry, memories because we can never have enough, and afflictions to deal with yours. You see, you and me, we're not so different, you and me. Each step is closer to death, so why not make each step so full of life? Join us, down on the pavement, the world seems so big and round again. Don't you miss the weight of gravity?