Damned kids
So desperate to be big threats
in their world of hostility and alienation.
—welcome back, loser —
He swayed, trembling inside, at a street corner.
waiting for the light to let him cross.
On a bumper sticker he saw:
Good people don’t need laws,
bad people ignore them. / Plato
What did law have to do with good or bad people?
It was all about control.
Law allowed control, using punishment to coerce compliance.
Always force back up law.
Force wielded by the rich to protect their property.
It was all focused on control of people to control and protect property.
Ideals entered into it only as enticements to induce compliance from the duped.
Laws are for those dumb enough to follow them,
as Tony Soprano might have said.
Jon shuddered.
He felt a coldness that was not temperature,
a remote icy indifference beyond location
caressing the parts of him he could never touch or know.
Imagery from Poe, Bierce, and Lovecraft arose.
Tentacular horrors vast and all-emcompassing moved unseen around him,
folded into interdimensional multiverse geometry,
swirling in mist, shadowy maws eagerly patient.
Presences crowded as he moved alone through a thickening crowd,
every wince, grimace, or swerve of avoidance reminding him
what an outsider he was
there,
where once he had been a respected member of society.
He walked out of the downtown area,
through a commercial district in steep decline,
into his neighborhood.
He wanted to reach the house,
go back through the tunnel,
rejoin the right world,
the one he belonged in.
Rain began a silent swallowing.
/// /// ///
