A day in the life.

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People always walk past panhandlers and homeless people on the street. Nobody wants to really get involved. The general attitude is OUT O SIGHT, OUT OF MIND, right? We don't like something on TV so we change the channel. We don't like the way people look so we avert our eyes in another direction. A sunny sky is not appreciated. People don't look up at the sky much. People ignore rainbows even. Who cares anymore about rainbows? Baby crying in a mother's arms and we get a bit irritated by the sound. Outside temperature one day is up in the 70s and the next day the temperature is down in the 20s. No big deal, it's just mother nature as usual. We get bored, very easily, and depressed so the choice to take a pill for our ills or take a walk depends on our level of depression or boredom. A man takes a drink of beer then another drink then another and another until he feels like he is drunk enough to deal with his sorrows and petty problems. A celebrity says some racial remark and gets fired from his job. A police officer shoots a man dead and is prosecuted as a murder suspect. An accident on the freeway is just an annoyance even if people get killed, because they have to take an alternate route to work or back to the club. One for the road, they ask. The bar tender hands the man another beer. Gulp gulp gulp. Ah. Good and cold, but you can hardly walk and you get out your car keys and walk to the exit nearly falling down and they know you are going out to drive somewhere but they don't really care, just another drunk. Police pull you over, you hand over your driver license. You get busted for being intoxicated, your car impounded, you get to spend the night in jail and wait for a sentencing and if you are lucky you get to pay a fine and first offense and nobody gets hurt but you pay dearly to get your car out of the pound or you lose your job, lose your freedom and go a year or two in jail waiting it out having ruined not only your life but you can never get those years back. Smoking weed in the 70s was illegal because weed was against the law, period. Now we have states in the USA that make it okay to get stoned. Well it ain't okay by me, but what can I do? Nothing. That's right. I can do nothing about people getting drunk stoned or in a car collision or get shot by a policeman by walking in a wobble across the street not paying attention when the cop says, stop or I'll shoot. You find yourself waking up each day, with the hope that somehow this day will be different, but you will have to first break your bad habits of skipping breakfast, and having a fast coffee and sausage with biscuit on the way to work then punching in, getting back on the daily treadmill with coworkers, following orders from your superiors and swallowing your pride while inside, wishing you were on some island paradise sipping a margarita and watching the pretty ladies walk across the beach. Wake up call. It's 4 in the morning and your dog wants a walk so you put on your long johns, sip on last night's coffee and head out to the pavement with your dog on a leash, thinking about the days ahead of you and as you look up at the sky and ask yourself why, you know why. You are one lucky guy. You got your dog and you got your wife and you got your job to be thankful for, but don't look into the mirror if you don't want to see those cracks on your forehead from the lines of aging. You look to see if any birds are flying around and wonder, WHERE HAVE ALL THE BIRDS GONE TO? You think that maybe putting out bird seed in a nice little feeder and pretty looking bird bath out of stone and wait you just might get a chance to spot a blue bird or a sparrow. But you don't have time to watch for them because by the time you get back home it's time for the evening news. You take off your day time clothes, step into a shower then lay on the couch in your lazy man's clothes and your dog wags his tail and hops on the couch for a rub down. You drop your cigarette on the floor and bend over to pick it up before the rug catches fire and you sit back and stare at the television set, taking in a breath of tobacco and petting your dog, and watching the television news as it unfolds another story about a fire in the mountains of Paradise. Your wife comes in later and asks, How was your day? Would you like a slice of chocolate pecan pie with extra whipping cream? A storm forms over night. The temperature drops down to 49 degrees and the rain falls down. You lay in the bed listening to the wind and rain and look up at the clock and it's already 2 AM and you know you will be up again soon to walk the dog. But you decide to pick up a book and start reading it until you fall fast asleep. A man walking outside in the rain without a place to stay, hasn't eaten a thing in days and is lost and lonely. City lights glow in the night under a cloud covered sky. A child cries for his mommy. Darling little girl. Do not cry. I will sing you a lullaby.