Right after a few blue tabs the city seems cleaner and safer. The “poor-man’s scotch” I hear they call it. Aquamarine activators scrubbing the senses of grit and grime. The peace that flows like pancake syrup. Thick and slow and sweet and difficult to erase. I have no choice but to thank the big shots. I know it’s strange for me to say it. Who would’ve thought the companies and the government joining forces to make “the blue-ride?” And to make it so cheap. Free for the masses. I’m truly impressed.
Who are you to judge? Not all of us can afford fancy foreign bottles of high-priced mouthwash. Anyway, you drink yours and we’ll drop ours. The world is better that way. That’s what the ads say. And you know what? They’re right! Politicians make sense now. Police deserve our respect. Pride’s a nasty word angry people use. We’re not angry no more. Happy days are here again. Tabs are blue. To hell with rainbows. Never got us anything before but ballrooms full of fake leaders and faulty promises.
Three months have passed I think. And not one of us has a bruise or broken word to report. The police have never been so polite. They finally have respect for us. Barely a day goes by that a policeman doesn’t help a person off a sidewalk and into his or her home. Forty years of civil rights had yet to give us something like that. Our leaders never learned we could read the Bible but you can’t eat it. Serves them right anyhow most are in jail where they belong. And we put them there. The people, their own kind, put them there. Bet they can’t pin this on someone else now. It will give them more time to pray.
I absolutely love working in the garbage recycling plant. The boss is always cursing about something. Calling us one of those old-time bad names on occasion. We know he doesn’t mean it. Stress has a strange way of oppressing people. The candy bars he provides every week proves the good heart wins out. Our pay is fair and goes a long way in the government warehouse. All our food, clothes, tabs, etc., is conveniently located there. Again showing us how much this society cares. Society is trying hard to make up for past abuses. We don’t have to go far, pay much, or want the best. All this causes anger. And like the ads say, “anger is stupid, smart is happy.” I can’t add more to that.
Yesterday, the government and the police had to put down a squabble at the Relocation Camp. Seems like our old leaders were at it again. Strutting and rhyming and giving them heartburn. You’d think they learn by now. Some have and joined us. The rest clearly hate happiness. Our permission was asked as always. And we obliged. Permanent purges are underway. The social order can no longer wait for their systems to adapt. Their anger blinds them to a better life. It stalls the blue ride. A most curious irony since freedom has arrived.
We have never been a happier people.
Mark Antony Rossi’s poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and photography have been published by The Antigonish Review, Black Heart Review, Deep South Journal, Ethical Spectacle, Flash Fiction, Japanophile, On The Rusk, The Journal of Poetry Therapy, The Magill Review, Sentiment Journal, Death Throes, Vine Leaves Literary Journal and dozens of other worthy publications. He currently writes a weekly science humor column “Atom and Eve” for the online publication “Cherry Creek Review.”
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