Man Made Box

This city is lonely sometimes.  

Man Made Box: the lonely city

After work, all the dogs retire to their kennels.  We escort them into their man made cages and provide them with food, water and blankets.  The cats curl up in their tiny cubicles, the lights go out and we all go our separate ways.  We 2-leggers say “have a good evening” and “you too”... then file accordingly into our cars, our bicycles, our trendy scooters with bumper stickers that scream against animal cruelty and promote being Earth friendly.  Sometimes we go out for drinks before going home.  For the most part, I usually just go home.  

Unless there’s bad weather I rarely drive my car these days and have become comfortable with my scooter.  I have to take different routes home to break up the monotony.  I tell myself that noticing the blooming flowers or a bird flying by counters this sudden rage against the machine.  I tell myself that I am unique and that it is because of these nice little things that people gravitate my way.  I tell myself a lot of things that do not correspond with daily reality.  People don’t “like” me because of all these nice little things.  They don’t like me because I occasionally notice a bird or a flower.  They don’t gravitate towards me because of all these things....  because I have never talked about things like that. I don’t express such notions.

Instead I just continue to go through the motions while everybody else around me goes through the same motions.  We smile together. We drink together. We work together.  We buy the same sort of clothes, shoes, and vehicles.  We have the same bumper stickers.  We joke around about farts, butts and sex organs like kids on the brink of puberty, a stage we seem to be arrested in sometimes. We all do these surface acts in perfect harmony.  Yet the air of disconnection feels dense today. It grows denser with each day.  We all wait until we are alone to be who we really are.  We return to our man-made boxes with pretty windows. 

Man Made Box: trapped 

I come here... my “home”, hang my garb on the coat rack, shower, eat, light a candle, watch t.v. and fall asleep.  Tomorrow I will wake up, throw on a pair of cargo pants, lace up my shoes, grab my helmet, my keys and my lunch of 3 healthy things... then head to work.  I will say “good morning” and “have a great day” to the same neighbors I see every morning on my way out the building.  They will say it back and when I get to work, the Sun will be coming up and we will begin letting the dogs out of their boxes.