4489. LET'S GET COMPLICATED AND ODD

LET'S GET COMPLICATED AND ODD

Down below there, that's the Hudson River, running past

Garrison, and across the way, well that's something else. I

don't know. We're by West Point, I know that much. I'm in

the middle of something strange  -  all rock and hard dirt,

a pathway through the woods and a New York State Park

too.  All that means is that you can't take anything home  - 

like not even a rock or a flower; well, supposedly. It's so

preciously lame  -  they can do whatever they want to the

land and the place around you, anywhere, but God forbid

you take a leaf or a twig. Hell, I think that needs re-examining,

for, really, what's it tell you about this place? Out on the water

(do you say in, or on?) some moron is running a jet ski or

however by what name they go by now. Stupid shit  -  he's

liking his noise, but we have to deal with it too. Little does

he care for that at all  -  he's having his fun no matter. In

fact, point of order here, the Park Ranger would have to

protect him, not me, if I started throwing stones at him.

It's like when your neighbor's outside with his screaming

hedge trimmer or edger or something  -  wailing away when

you're trying to think  -  and he's the one wearing ear-cover

headsets. Well, hell, that's so very nice.

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It seems like the world's thrown itself ass-backwards into

some easy sort of Hell. Now, I ain't no Huck Finn, no

Holden Caulfield with a kid's story to tell, but what is the 

point of all this complicated fuss about complicated living? 

I want things simple, and that's the way I live 'em. But no 

one else seems ever to understand. A cop, dumb-ass cop, 

he's got to protect the status quo and question for himself 

nothing at all. That's why I could never be a cop  -  that  and

all the bad donuts and the late-night shifts with girls hanging 

all over your car, trying to talk with you, get on your topmost 

people list, throw a few favors her way. Well, hell, that's 

so very nice too. All the breaks one can order.
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But for the rest of it all, you can take it and tank the load  - 
all those crazy enforcers and generals in cars, each of them
thinking they're somehow above the fray, higher than the
rest when really they're not anything at all. If you were to ask
any of them what they were up to, they couldn't tell you  -  they'd
try, oh yeah, let's get that sure  -  but all those tumbling words
they'd let loose would just be some other person's language, like
spoken in code, just so you wouldn't ask any more. That's how all
these people get by  -  they babble on, going on about things of
no concern or importance at all, and they operate safely within
the knowledge that no one ever will call them out on it. Tell
them they're all just a bunch of stupid shits. It's like a game,
first everyone plays they're deaf, then they play they're mute,
and then  -  best part  -  they all play they're dumb and stupid too.