An elderly gentleman strolled to towards the supermarket entrance, headed to grab a trolley on his way in. The way ahead would take him past a younger man, idling near the trolleys.
As he drew near, common sense took hold and he carefully donned his mask before he got too close to the other man, and the store would be busy at this time of day.
The younger man was idly smoking a cigarette. He hadn't noticed the elderly gentleman and he exhaled his spent smoke into the air as the veteran came by.
“You should stop that, those things smell awful!”, the elderly man commented.
“Smell?”, came the reply. “I guess that means your mask doesn't work then?”.
Harley Davidson. The rebel brand. Independent. Free. Against the grain. Fearless.
He pulled up his growling steed slap bang in front of the store, just on the pavement. Parking spaces didn't mean anything to a Harley. The convenience of that bit of pavement was his. He wouldn't be long anyway. He loved the wind in his face and the open faced helmet ticked the box but let his beard flow free.
At the boundary of the store, the door began to slide back to let him in. A shot of adrenalin spiked his brain and his memory.
He reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out his red cotton bandana emblazoned, “Freedom and Mayhem!”, which he tied neatly around his mouth and nose.
“Nearly forgot!”, he thought. “Can't be too careful these days.”.
Who else has the disturbing revelation we are living out our own personal rock opera of Floyd's "The Wall?" It fucking surrounds you like a bad trip! Put the album on and walk around, you'd think you were hallucinating like Pink.
Sadly, you're not. Children of all backgrounds, sizes, colors on yellow school busses obediently social distanced wearing the muzzle that makes all their special uniqueness disappear (Another Brick in The Wall) Visual and audio fear porn propaganda coming from every direction causing the weak to withdraw and hide in their self constructed cage wearing their mask (Good Bye Cruel World) Globally state sponsored propaganda pitting neighbors against each other (Run Like Hell) to divide and conquer the serfs. Surrounded by those who are exhibiting bazaar symptoms, some who nochalantly accept as normal (Comfortably Numb) Barely containing myself while envisioning me shaking/slapping everyone of them back to consciousness (Hey You)
I am constantly peering around the aisles in the grocery looking for "those" people (Is There Anybody Out There?) The ones who believe in personal freedom and practice civil disobedience. The "selfish" who walk with their backs straight and their shoulders back. Our eyes meet with the same steel look of determination, nodding our heads and confirming at high decibel cogitation,
"WE WILL NOT BE BROKE!"