X-ray

Mercury-vapor reflections pool in your eyes. Tears spill over the edge, running in rivers of the past, washing whirlpools of pain. We shower in our ignominy. Standing alone under the light we are naked, vulnerable, and exposed; trembling with the fear that honesty brings. That the world sees us for what we are, that we see ourselves for what we are, not what we wish we were. You can try but your going to get it wrong, we all get it wrong. We trip and stumble, the ground is laid so that we fall. Bodies pile in the gutters, swept to the side, just another obstacle. Their blood lubricates the gears underground that keep the big machine churning, constantly in motion. Our equilibriums are thrown off by jarring tectonic shifts. Familiar neighborhoods are swallowed whole over night, leaving confusion and dislocation.