Keeping The Sighs To A Minimum

From where I'm standing, everything is hazy.  I squint my eyes to see clearer, but the sight is splendid as it is.  It is a magnificent blur of colors, mostly dark but with scattered punctures of brightness.  Everywhere are light streaks, yellow and red for the cars that pass by and don't give a shit, white for the occasional building.  Everywhere is the orange glow of street lamps on a lonely night.  It is late and I'm not yet home and I am alone, walking.  A usual scene.  I'm walking on the university's roads; sometimes straying left, sometimes staying right.  I like having the freedom of the road; sidewalks are much too limiting.  My hands, which I hold up to my face,are littered with colors and dirt.  Lines of reds and greens, pools of browns and blacks stain them -- a nice souvenir from a five-hour drawing stint.  I smile and I'm thinking, I like what I'm doing.  But always, I remember everybody else.  I sigh.

It was a nice night and the jeepneys are never full.  I ride the first one to arrive, and I am on my way.  The driver spews out profanity, and I don't really know what's going on.  My headphones are on.  I am on an express train going downer south.  Going right, and left.  Forward.  Backward.  I am on an express train and it's going everywhere, traversing Metro Manila and traversing my thoughts.  I think nothing of all the smart-casual clad women not of my age with sad eyes and tired auras. And then, I am on the bus.  I never sleep on them nowadays, you'll never what you'll wake up to.  A different city, a thief, or a dirty man.  I am steering away from Ayala.  I think nothing of anything.  I sigh.

Despite the haze, I can still feel that wind of familiarity pass on my cheeks.  It's a re-acquaintance with a year I've so readily forgotten.  Here it is again, another round. I'm thinking: "Fuck this. It's always like this."   I always fall back to some memory and I relive it.  I don't know what for, really.   For posterity?  Or sadism.  Perhaps, I never really want to forget anything.  Or perhaps, I'm always too much stuck on what has been and what will never be.  I don't go as passionately for what I want, but what I am now should be sufficient.  But, I don't know, I guess it is okay to an extent.  I am okay to an extent (everyone is).  We are all on the same street.  I sigh.  

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