Riot by Elvin Lukose

Riot

Elvin Lukose

doors latched shut from the inside he sits on whatever remains of the toilet seat at a roadside latrine smoking his flimsy cigarette watching the smoke ascend to irritate the halogen glow of a bulb that hangs hopelessly from a leprotic roof

the bucket is filling up to the brim drop by drop from the nozzle to the bottom keeping time in a suddenly timeless world

he can see the flashes on the door in front of him like a movie the civil barter of warfare of petrol bombs and molotov cocktails

the only company he has now are these buzzing flies fleeing from the clouds of phosphorus of gun powder and ash

he can hear the police the blaring microphones the battle cries of the street warriors the goons the guardians and the invisible line between them

he peers out of the window slits all he can see are legs running bodies darting from point to point some of them interrupted in their tracks

by a gunshot to their belly only to fall onto a puddle of their own blood soon to be motionless lifeless

he is getting used to the pounding on the outside and the inside there is nothing worth watching anymore his eyes haven't closed since 3 days there is no dream there is no sleep no night no day just flashes of amber and smog from the pyres

he sits back on the toilet seat staring at the little streams meandering between patches of moss on the moist floor spiraling into the closet the fetid stench is suffocating but bearable at least it doesn't smell like blood and fire here

the cigarette is shrinking down to the filter his last fix is about to end his eyes are wearing out his toes are pruning from the wetness on the floor he lies down, curled up, legs to his chest head to the knees, in his own little womb he can hear his mother singing his favorite rhyme like an angel stroking his weary head within a tactile memory

he still has two match sticks and one more cigarette on him as he holds its crooked body

trembling between his fingers and buries it back in his pocket for safekeeping for future no matter how long it is or how short

he will need to stay there for a few more hours maybe even days it looks like it will be awhile.