yonder hillside
on yonder hillside, all the creatures smile. it's a blank smile. the closer i walk the more i focus on the way i'm feeling, as if my stomach decided now was a great time to twist into knots. the creatures continue to smile. i start to realize that every single one of them is someone i know. my mother, my friends, my friends families, teachers, policemen, my uncles, politicians it seems like everyone is there somewhere, but a altered version of themselves, always smiling. moving around hunched over barely able to hold their torsos above their waists. it seems like they all breathe in unison. there chests swell and then empty to the point you can see their entire skeletons, i feel like i could probably count every bone they have in their bodies. the hillside is beautiful. green grass, flowers, birds and bunnies, even a few deer. a gorgeous cloudless day, about seventy six degrees. all these people would look absolutely gorgeous, if i weren't paying attention. i continue to take a few steps towards them, i can begin to hear a distinct sound coming from the smiling mouths of the one's closest to me. the first one i am close enough to hear is having both sides of a conversation about video game graphics and the ways to improve them. i continue to walk around listening to as many creatures as I can. Finally I find my mother and she's smiling as big as all of the others. Hunched, holding herself up, complaing attempting to convince me that all my problems are because of mexicans. the woman who told me to love everyone, regardless of their skin color, or personal decisions for themselves. I begin to become overwhelmed with sadness, crying, sobbing relentlessly. I stand and sit, so confused at the events of this hour i can't decide which is more comfortable. i can live by good morals and yet, I'm told by creatures everywhere I go my ideas are wrong and rasism and hatered is the way i should live my life. everywhere I see someone talking about something, their interest at that moment. Always changing, never making sense and always smiling. A huge smile, placed there to make their faces appear pleasant, while their bodies waste away because of self loathing and hatred for all the other creatures. the creatures for the first time, notice that theire surrounded by creatures they don't know, they're not alone. their eyes begin to appear worried but their smiles never lessen. one of the creatures has the biggest smile of them all, as he attacks and kills another creature. slowly all of the creatures on yonder hillside have huge smiles. now a few of the creatures have the whole hillside to themselves, in bunkers always watching and waiting for who's going to take it from them. i watch from another hill, with no one but a few people sharing and helping each other concerned only with love. slowly the smiling creatures dissipate at the hands of the smallest, weakest, richest creature, smiling largest. appearing almost human, fooled into thinking he was the best creature for it. a pseudo human being not fueled by emotion or rationality but greed and lust for more personal possession. smiling. on yonder hillside.