Walking to Ohio by Susan Solomon
“There are colors on the street
Red, white and blue.” -Neil Young
It was early in the early 21st century and they lived as the fucked. Occasionally they woke up feeling fine, but morning clarity again brought the crushing realization of the still-fucked. The shroud of a never-ending hangover engulfed their spirits. On good days the darkness lifted with the sun, only to return, an ominous, strangling fog.
They needed to battle this fucked feeling, as it had started to take on a life of its own. She did not know his deepest thoughts, only that he endured anger as well, and in a strange way this was comforting. And so he and she were fucked together, an unlikely pair, bonded by their common quest. They had originally met a year earlier in the late 20th century at a coffee shop, along with others of their kind. They did, at that time, sense the vague beginnings of the Fuck but never dreamed how insidious it would become.
Then one day he had a most brilliant Idea. We will walk, we will walk to the heart of the Fuck and overturn it and slay it! A silent wall of people will join us. And she fell in love with this dream that spoke to justice and fighting the Empire. Yes, that was the magic of the dream; it promised a heartbreaking freedom that rarely existed. It was almost too exciting to bear – the purity of the Walk versus the vileness of the Fuck. Light against Dark, Good against Evil, the oldest of stories about to play out.
“It is all I can think about,” he told her.
And as they walked into the sun, the old 20th century anthem, “Rockin’ in the Free World,” colored the air around them.
***
image by Art-Abuser.
