We do not know how far someone may have fallen to end up where they are at. We also do not know how far someone may have come up from where they were. How hard the journey was and still is. Some feel more than others. Some do not feel at all and never will understand those that walk and survive this life with unprotected hearts. Try as they may to shield themselves, pain of judgement and scorn by others finds them. Another layer of scab applies itself to cover wounds gleefully made to feel superior. Borne without complaint to be added to the many, many scars already evident upon a gentle soul.

Before the world mattered it didn't exist. A void yearning to be filled with something. Crying out for purpose and demanding to have substance. Now that the world exist it doesn't matter except to a select few. They stand and sit making noise with lips that make no sound hoping that a mouth listener will come soon to hear their cries. Why so serious? Says the lip reader with a smile. Is ice cream meant to be admired or eaten before it melts. Eat the world, it will not be here long whether you do are don't. Might as well have a bite.

All the love and hope carefully nurtured

has splintered. They only come through

in short lived gasps that are quickly lost.

What remains is a hot boiling cauldron

of hatred for everyone that has ever hurt

me. To love those that laugh at me, talk

spitefully of me and are dishonest with

their loyalties has been a great challenge

and one that I have in the end failed. I

hate them all now and can only hope that they all experience pain and pain and pain and pain.................

 The human population has been reduced and forced to move into the major cities in order to receive the  government benefits necessary for survival. Any unauthorized rural communities found are exterminated. All legal financial exchanges are digitally controlled  and bartering is highly discouraged. Trading any goods with anyone not a part of the system will result in arrest and execution.

 Anyone not in a state approved breeding program are sterilized. Elderly and disabled, not able to take care of themselves are euthanized. There is only one race, the human one. Skin color no longer applies as everyone is the same ruddy light brown. If someone is found to be  unique in their features they are shunned and turned away from all community activities, forced to live in the ghettos as outcast and the damned.

 There is no political system to decide upon. There is no system of grievance or protest of conditions. All disagreements are handled privately between parties. Any involvement of the authorities will result in one or both parties being taken away. Some return, others never do. Individual rights and freedoms do not exist.

 Growing of gardens, raising of animals of any sort whether as pets or livestock is not allowed. Water is rationed and any use of or collecting of water not approved is illegal. Only state approved benefits are to be consumed. Any and all work related activities are assigned based on dna testing  and physical ability.

  Worship is mandatory for all subjects in the system. Any one found to be participating in religious activities not approved by the state will be executed. Anyone in the system not taking part in the mandatory worship will be sent to a state camp until they do or until they die. Education is in complete control by the state. The math that is taught is their math, the history taught, their history. Information given and received is their information. Possession of any material not approved will result in correction being given. 

 In the city of Chicago a man named Eric comes of age in this dystopian society. He lives and works by their rules. He was taught what to believe and how to think in their system of rule. When he is turned in to the authorities by a jealous neighbor he escapes to the ghetto and discovers a underground of people who are just now discovering that everything they thought was real, was all a lie. When the time comes for the cleansing of the outcast he helps to lead the fight for the people of the ghettos survival. The more that he learns about the history of what once was. The more determined he becomes to make sure that the people he left behind and all of Chicago are made aware of the greatest thing worth fighting for. Human freedom.

Aged elite make choices in

clandestine cathedrals while

teaching offspring to rule,

leaving illusions of freedomthrough deception and misdirection.

I see the beauty of this creation and wonder at its variety of life and places. I notice the expressions on faces and try and find a similar recognition of the majesty surrounding . Going to and fro, coming from and heading for. Never stopping for a moment to notice the pieces all fitting so neatly and correct to provide the setting. But sometimes there is someone who notices the rain and the sheen it leaves behind to make life brighter . A seeing of a dazzling butterfly as if for the very first time. The wonder of a bird in flight, the grandeur of the peaks or the peace that  comes from the flowing waters of a stream and then the realization of our smallness along with the knowledge of our complexity. It is a joy to recognize this shared awe of all that was, all that is and the hope of what may be. But only sometimes.