Alien Landscape

mask of the new millenium.

silence.

a man in a wrinkled shirt and a loosened tie staggered home in his shiny shoes and his fancy case. he looked like a man who just woke up from a long restless sleep. he looked like a man the city just spat out.

in the train, his head hung like an inactive computer. searchingly, his hand caressed his face. he wondered at the hard wrinkles. he wondered at the fresh millenium. everything else looked like him. tired, confused, misplaced. he felt an uncomfortable sense of belonging. he felt guilty.

i sat there and looked at this man as he blinked away his hair, blinked away time, blinked away whatever that was rising up from inside of him. i watched as he fidgeted, not knowing what to do with his hands. his ring finger was naked. he looked to the left and to the right and saw his fellows either asleep or reading business magazines. he felt he should do the same.

our eyes met. defensiveness. resentment. he looked away.
when i caught a glimpse of him again, it was a mask of the new millenium. something hard, cold and impersonal. isolation. dysphoria. hope; worn and twisted into cynicism. something hiding a flickering childish dream. a sad man.

he became just another one among those who slept dormant beside him. rows and rows of sad men and women.

an unbearable and painful silence.
Posted by NHJ 7/26/2006 11:53:00 pm

Wednesday, July 26, 2006