commuting by bike on the morning connected to the landscape of which i was born into grounded by the ribbon of thin black road connected with that small patch of rolling rubber on the tires my senses sometimes seem heightened, hyper aware of what is going on with all the perceptions, hearing, taste, touch, vision and smell. i am picking up on things that i know i would have never had, had i been in a car at that exact same moment.
i travel west on the stay alive, west on the earth which is theoretically spinning towards me under my wheels rolling over it as it comes. my morning ride is pulling me closer to the density of the million people who have come to dwell in the utopia of mecklenberg charlotte, not away from them. behind them not really that far is the rest of the world, 7 billion or so just on the other side of the jar still spinning in my direction. the air with the revolving earth, the atmospheric condition, the wind is coming from the same direction that i am traveling to, as i go west, it is floating east being pushed by wind, sometimes strong fast winds, sometimes calm, rarely is it not. as i get closer the smells change, the waste of that million sometimes becomes so clear that i cannot look away. garbages, food waste, human waste, that liquid white ooze coming out of every dumpster behind every building, sewer lines oozing under ground, the carbon heat smell of the cars all that is being release by society and cultural over consumption to fill the needs of my convenience.
as the temp rises this stuff starts cooking and has no where to go so it stays low, ground level and above your head maybe a few hundred feet like an invisible blanket of smell across the plastic steel and glass landscape adding to the filter that we have come to know as ground level ozone. the smell intensifies in spots, sweating already at 0744hrs on the lows of the east side, not just smell anymore, it is a hot smell that is cooking and cannot cool down, for the heat is coming up again with the sun and the radiant condition of all the no trees and plenty of asphalt, faux siding and post industrial urban design where there was never any industry. it can be a rancid bile like smell of waste that you have to try to ignore to stifle the desire to vomit or gag. the body and mind must continue and get through to the hill on central where 10th street comes in. there is a break there, it is chocolate from the pastry factory. it comes up the 10th and louise streets, crosses and stays with for a few fleeting minutes but it sure is nice and brings a smile in the early hours. chocolate i tell you, hot, warm, like the road i am riding on is made with melted chocolate pop tarts, strange after taking in such perpetual nasty. it is as if i was now transported on to a landscape that is a candy land board game. i love the contrast of CHOCOLATE PASS for sure directly before i enter bank town usa and all the clean smells i am about to immerse my self in for the day before i start it all over again.......
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