The Day After

The weekend is over. New Year's has passed from the final frenzied debauch of those looking to blot out the last few hours in a haze of alcohol, sex, illicit drugs, and equally illicit fireworks and has now emerged into the fresh new year with a blazing hangover, a mouth that feels like it has smuggled unlaundered Depression-era work socks, and in unfamiliar surroundings. For those who got a bit too into the spirit of things, well, I'll hazard there are more than a few souls all but gnawing off their own limbs to escape from those that seemed like a good fuck at the time, discovering they mistook the closet for the bathroom again, and/or negotiating furiously with authorities.

There is something bleak about the morning of January first at a porn store. The day creeps by. Traffic is sporadic, sluggish to build. One could almost think the world was reduced to ashes and crumpled concrete beyond the confines of the store. Customers wander in, almost furtively. These are grim-faced denizens; survivors of the excess, escapees of the post-revel zombies. Between roaming the post-apocalyptic freeways for precious aspirin and antacids and evading over-muscled Aussies in ensembles of leather, feathers, and scrap metal, they needed to make a quick stop for libido's sake.

Not for today are the complex peregrinations of the shelves for movies or toys. Not for them this day are the wonders of the arcade. Perhaps tomorrow, but for now their needs and attention are limited. They enter, select an item, perhaps two, and are at the counter to be rung up with almost a clockwork efficiency. Were it not for the lapses in commerce grinding by with all the manic action of glacial migration, my mercenary heart would be aflutter at the simplicity of my duties. Give me a thousand patrons ticking through with the meter of a metronome and gracefully simple to supply wants and I shall be a cheerful lad.

Bored, but cheerful. ‘Tis a bitter jest that complexity keeps away ennui. Better a bitter and enraged Lanius than a bored one. Trust me on that one. I experiment.