Author Topic: In the city  (Read 2711 times)

Offline bahgheera

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In the city
« on: September 22, 2009, 09:25:08 PM »
I've known this city since the day it was born. I've walked it's streets, breathed it's air, heard it's sounds and felt its pulse thump with the rhythm of a million heartbeats. I've been right there with every young mother taking her kids to the library, with every sewer rat quickly venturing out onto the sidewalk in broad daylight to snatch a discarded pizza crust, with every hobo asking for a dollar, every drug deal and every shady political maneuver. I know this city, as if it were my own mind, and let me tell you something, man these people just don't appreciate what they've got. They don't appreciate the filth laying there in the gutter, they don't appreciate the smog hanging in the air,  they don't appreciate the pigeon poop on all the statues at the park or the riff-raff hanging out in the alleys, smelling of beer and urine, looking for an outsider to roll, for an easy target they can intimidate into handing over his wallet just before he gets the crap kicked out of him. They don't appreciate any of that. All they see is what they want to see, not what really is.
Not to say they're not appreciative. Man, they're appreciative all right. They love all the social programs, the park beautification, the road maintenance, the trash cleanup, the local celebrations and festivals, etc. All that crap. The crap that isn't worth a thing. Because you know what? Man, they never think about that stuff. The stuff they love - it's never on their minds. The stuff they hate? It's all they ever think about. That young mother at the library - she should be glad she's got a library to take those kids to. But all she's seeing is the vagrants on the corner, the vagrants sleeping in chairs inside, it's all she can focus on to the point that half the time she doesn't even go there. See what I mean? These people don't really appreciate what they've got.
Take me for example. Long as I've been here, I've been observing. Watching, seeing things happen, seeing from the dark corners into the light, sometimes being the darkness, sometimes wafting in through an open window. They all know I'm there, they know it with every fiber of their being. Man, they know I'm there and they know they need me there, know that this city just wouldn't operate without me. But they don't want to acknowledge me, man they even act like I don't exist! It's downright comical at times, to see what lengths these people will go to, just to pretend like I'm not there, to try and trick themselves into believing that I'm a figment of some childish imagination, a figure from a dream, that lives in a child's closet and disappears into vapor as soon as Dad looks in. 'See, there's nothing there!'. Man, I've heard that one a thousand times. And it's so untrue. Because I am there. But I'm not what you were expecting, I'm not the bogeyman or some hideous creature wanting to snatch the kids into another dimension and eat their souls. I'm simply a manifestation of reality, fulfilling my duty, just like you and every other creature on this world. And man, I don't even need to tell you why I'm here, don't need to tell this city why I'm here, because you, and they, know it. They know it when I'm in their minds, you know it, when you smell that strange burning scent in the air, they know it when I'm hovering six inches behind them, you know it when I'm circling above your house in the middle of the night. Man, you KNOW it.
« Last Edit: October 16, 2009, 05:04:49 PM by bahgheera »