View from the 14th Floor
Standing high above
the earth,
Staring out through the tinted glass of a concrete and steel monolith,
The world seems
serene and orderly.
The cars in the parking lot are like a mosaic of
metallic tiles,
In a black asphalt grout,
embellished with white parking stripes,
and all lined up in orderly
rows.
The windswept arches
and gentle curves of the pale clouds against the
pastel-blue sky
are in sharp contrast to
the boxy shapes
and straight lines of the man made earthbound
objects that sprawl
across the landscape.
The contrived
walkways of tree lined concrete give the surreal effect of mixing
natures random design
with human convenience.
By the movement of the trees, I can see that the there is a slight
breeze
blowing from the west.
Behind me captive
beings sit deathly still, staring into the hypnotic glowing
eye of digital madness,
Brains working
furiously in comatose bodies.
Despite eerie dull murmurs that sound vaguely human, all appear
lifeless.
Like looking
at a still photograph while inaudible sounds rumble in the distance.
And like me, they
each sell part of their soul every day, for their precious dollar.
The cherished dollar that pays the mortgage, contributes to
college funds, rents movies and saves for retirement. That dollar does lots of
things.
And it is needed
to survive, so here we sit, floundering in our discontented resolve.
All would rather be elsewhere, yet each clutches to their job
as a man sentenced to death will cling
to hope.
For we
fear deprivation more than we value the best part of our lives.
It is an unjust bargain we submit to
every day,
to trade a day
of our life for dollars. A bizarre bargain made not out of choice,
but out of need.
A perfect
absurdity.
My precious break time is almost at an end. Every 2 hours we get
15 minutes to try to refresh what little humanity we have left.
In a few moments I must
rejoin the mumbling undead masses.
Despondently I reflect on how truly unimportant we really are.
Our ideas mean
very little,
and our individuality means nothing.
Looking at the trees, it appears that the breeze has picked up a
little.