Summer in the city. The grid is lit up like a dirty grill, hot and red, caking on the filth and the remnants of last night’s meat. It’s the weekend, but who cares, we have places to go, the atoms say, stretching apart, thrown together, brushing up against eachother’s agendas. A week ago, a crane fell and killed two and we stood on the cool breezy street, talking and complaining to absolute strangers, calling for Mike’s resignation, for action, for bureaucratic blood. Now the papers report that a crane operator had been bribed and, so long as the AC works, let’s bribe him some more and move, move, keep moving, the city is swell, though it feels like hell.
Down into the subway, where the tiles sweat worse than we do. A bump on the stairs, she, almost drunk from heat, brushed up against the girl’s stroller a little to harshly.
“Great job, idiot….” The father whispers, through clenched teeth, though the child remains sleeping.
“EXCUSE ME!?” The woman yells with her whole body, this tea kettle is ready to be taken off the fire.
“You almost knocked my daughter over excuse you are you–”
“I did w….fuck you….don’t ever call me.”
“I’m, you almost knocked her over, listen mam, are you, don’t think that, it’s not okay to.”
“You wanna fuckin call me an idiot, you wanna fucking–you don’t ever call me an–”
“You knocked in to my….” he backs down and walks away, the girl ain’t sleeping anymore.
“FUCK YOU YOU ASSHOLE,” the woman screams, emboldened by his retreat, “YOU DRUNKEN FUCK! YOU TERRIBLE PARENT! STUPID FUCK!”
Only a few heads have bothered to turn. It’s too hot. The lady waits for the train, occasionally widening her eyes in lonely fury, blowing warm air through her nostrils.
A bit of water slowly comes down through the station’s vent. Drip, drip, drip. It’s probably toxic and freon and chemicals. But, God, I wish I was in a pool filled with it.
Have you considered Subscribing to all of this madness?
