Wet Pavement

Wet pavement is most deceiving late in the evening when neon lights from the street lined with bars and bodegas bleed together into rainbow reflections of beauty with a hint of sparkle. A masquerade of ugliness and pulchritude, black patches of old forgotten gum and dog shit shimmer.

No longer does one see the dark spots of gum thrown away years ago, shadows shelter rats and garbage, only the black pavement is dancing happily at his feet. Usual gray becomes saturated black, and feeling of nausea is replaced with dizziness.

In all of this false beauty he should of forgotten the parasite bogging his brain. Wine and cigarettes did not kill it, and solitude only seem to strengthen its grip. How ridicules he felt when his friendly approach was met with laughter and derision. To be fair he did not know what he wanted out of exchange. There should been a goal, a plan, and a prize to assess how much effort he wanted to put in, but he had neither. It was an empty exchange, one that caused him to sit on A15 alone with a dumb look on his face. As he looked on at the wet pavement, bus stopped every other block picking up a fresh set of strangers to distract him from his thoughts. They were the usual pedigree of old, young and disinterested. And once he began to feel comfortable with their presence, feeling slight companionship, they up and left, disappointing him once more. He examined the riders, beginning with their footwear to their hair. It was a habit he picked up when he was young, riding subways with his mother. It was rude to stare at people's faces, instead he stared at their feet and made mental notes about their footwear. Old men seem to wear the same black wide leather shoes, not the finely polished, "you could see yourself" leather with sleek shade heels and pointed toes, or the fashionable square toes, those shoes belonged to businessmen and only those who travelled abroad. Old men wore boat shoes. They were heavy and thick, in turn making old men look older. Women on subways never wore the shoes he saw women wear on tv. Although women on tv never took subway. The subway women usually wore flats in multitude of colors and material.

Their association was a deserted one. It was dry with mild hallucinations of possibility.

Overall he was content with his achievements and thought of himself as a respectable and noble human being. He was well rounded and knowledgeable in most aspects of popular arts, culture, and science. He was not ambitions but polite to management. His subordinates felt he was a tool.