Photograph in Black and White, Urban Primary Parkside

Downtown the infinite traffic slithers, but it barely slides. Silence is not empty; it is the sound of idling engines and a million exhaling all at once. The sun in the streets seems brighter than it does on the grass, but it is just the hundreds of windows keeping light like no tree can. In the cars and in the offices every one lies vacant, just drinking in the carbonated ether and reveling in unrest. A report confirms that 2 + 2 will never equal 5 unless it is instructed at elementary level, and this brings a certain peace of mind.

Overhead, though no one looks, an airplane flies. Whether to a warmer ocean or to a barren wasteland, it goes invariably to another prison.