This City is a Toilet

By darryl on Sun, Sep 23, 2007 5:07 pm

today (9/22), i had planned on taking the commuter rail out to lowell to see the jack kerouac exhibit at the boott cotton mill museum, where they have the original scroll of "on the road" on display. i got to oak grove station at 9:20, commuter rail to lowell leaves north station at 10:00. plenty of time, right? wrong. no trains between oak grove and haymarket, for some reason. so i get on the shuttle bus, which immediately fills up, so nobody at any other station can get on. finally get to haymarket after 10:00. the next commuter rail to lowell is 12:10, i go to check it out. silly me, the commuter rail isn't working! there are shuttle buses going to lowell, no trains. needless to say, i didn't feel like taking a fucking shuttle bus all the way to lowell, so i gave up, defeated. but it did inspire me to write this.... "This City is a Toilet" You can't walk anywhere without some mouthbreathing idiot getting in your way. Try to sit down for even a minute on a bench and you're immediately accosted by a filthy, stinking derelict who reeks of booze and piss, who wants money or cigarettes or anything you can give him (or her). Keep moving, eyes straight ahead, do not talk to anyone, for who knows what inanities will spew forth from their drooling simpleton mouths? Watch where you step as well, lest you come upon a puddle of urine or a pool of fresh vomit. There are junkies shooting up and nodding off in public, drug addicts and unwashed alcoholics passed out on the sidewalks, propped up by structures made of steel and glass and concrete. There's traffic everywhere, cars speeding down sidestreets at speeds unfit for highways, horns blasting. The bus is packed full, no room at all, no air to breathe. The windows are locked shut, everybody is sweating through their clothes. Garbage is everywhere, you see rats running here and there, ducking into sewers. Everything reeks and stinks, it's all rotten and rotting. Construction is everywhere, you can't walk anywhere, there's detours and ropes and signs telling you you can't get there from here, go back, circle around, end up in the same place. Nothing works, the trains don't run, traffic lights are broken. It's filthy and disgusting, and so are the people. This city is a toilet, and I can't wait for the day I can leave it behind. I hate it, I really do. Get me out of here. I know I'll miss it someday, but that day is not today. -inspired by the lovely city of Boston, especially the MBTA.