Remnants

We see him in the mornings usually, standing at the corner of two major downtown streets.  He picks up pieces of trash and, in an inexplicable fury, throws them with all his might at a small brick wall.  When they bounce off, he picks them right back up and throws them again.  In the several minutes we sit at the light he will repeat this process over and over, in an obviously unbalanced attempt to get paper bags and bits of refuse to defy the laws of physics and pass through to the other side.  It’s the violence of his throwing that draws the eye, the force equivalent to that of a major league pitcher painting the corners with a 90 mile an hour fastball.  His face is twisted in a rictus of rage, and each time the trash bounces off the wall, he grows more agitated and his throwing takes on an even greater air of desperation.  As our light goes green, we turn slowly past him, wondering if there will ever be a day when he succeeds in ramming the remnants of his imagination through an immovable and impassive reality. Read the rest of this entry »