sweet, sweat, sway, swagger

the yellow spots in the lawn crawl outward toward the cracking sidewalk. as the sun burns away at the foliage we sit around sweating like kings. the foothills loom off in the distance, vaguely concealed under a shawl of smog and clouds of dirt. how picturesque.

shame

people look to the ground to avoid eye contact, they count the lines and cracks in the ugly pavement, they observe their foot movement as though it was inorganic to their body. they avoid the awkward glare of malice that the human animal holds inside. they would rather look down than up. looking up they would see the deep and unforgiving vastness of the sky. buddha, allah and god sit above and judge, you'll meet their eyes if you look up. dead relatives, floating souls, water molecules, all bearing down to mock and judge and spite. we look down to avoid shame, lowering our heads in a repentance of shame, unrepentantly staring down into a lifeless void.