The city in which I live contains a heinous number of alleyways.
I travel to a new one every day, only to see what resides there.
Today, I found a God sitting cross legged on a milk crate, a Lucky Strike between their lips.
I was caught unawares, but I knelt all the same...
Knelt to a deity I had never heard of before. Why?
I had questions for them. I wasted no time.
O vicious energy,
Tell me why I have put on these headphones so many times before
And stepped from the safety of my closet into the acrid light of this rattling sky?
Why do I brave the smog and asunder?
Why? For what do I suffer?
How can I tell when a stranger is a God in disguise?
This God was squat euphoria. They paid me no mind-
they sat there smoking.
This smoke has run thick over my home's skyline for too long.
Will you not call the rains to spirit it away?
Why must this city and her people
take in a miasma a day?
At this, the God ashed their cigarette, crushed it under their sparkling heel.
Their lips expelled a whisper of smoke as they croaked out one sentence.
"It's better than The Alternative, Is it not?"
I was barely able to part my lips in protest before they were gone from view.
...
The Alternative?
Well, I guess they are right
The headphones returned to my ears, I stepped from the shade of the alleyway.
A cough rising itself from my belly,
I made my way home.
