drown the urge for permanence and certainty (original) (raw)

standing in a small crowd outside of a vietnamese restaurant looking through the glass, watching footage of the riot on television. cheering kids in jerseys, raising their arms and cavorting in front of overturned, burning vehicles. turning around and seeing the majestic, darkening purple mountains, the beautiful summer sunset, marred by thick black smoke rising from the city. these are things i see in movies, not things i experience in real life. how strange is that?

hearing about the guy who fell four storeys off of the viaduct. the stabbings, the beatings, the broken windows and the looting. the chapters that got broken into for the sake of destruction, though nothing was stolen, because they didn't want books. they wanted louis vuitton and coach bags, high-end cosmetics, candy.

falling asleep to sirens and helicopters beating through the night. waking up to sirens and helicopters, again, but also a city that rose early and brought garbage bags and brooms downtown to help clean up the mess. words of encouragement, support, and shame scrawled on the plywood put up in the broken store windows.