I woke with a slight pain coursing through my body. While brushing gravel bits ground into my clothes and hair, I glanced back toward the hut. Facing the hut lie the smoldering shoes on the gravel path. Wow, those heavily burdened shoes must have exploded with enough force to toss me like a rag. I pulled myself up and returned to my hike with a slight limp relieving the moments just before nearly being killed by forces unimaginable to all but a few.
The Hawthorne-lined trail flooded with songbirds was drastically interrupted by a hidden graffiti-splattered brick hut. The words marked on the bricks raged outward, harsh and hateful, into my eyes. The facing wall shared a jagged message for the passing hikers. One can never know what another thinks, but the words from the unknown artist left little to imagine. I was curious to understand why. I took a moment to try and put my feet in the author's shoes. The fit was not great, the style and color horrid, and I am unsure I could get them on my feet. No matter, I stood on those shoes and ventured into a journey of the mind of another.
Instantly my spine snapped tight with pain from anger and fear. I could feel the heat course through my veins. I was suddenly transported to a store selecting paint pens. I could feel the burn taking the pens home and hiding them out of view. Anxiety filled my soul as I waited for the dark hours to start my night raid to a waiting brick canvas. A canvas of bricks ready an artless and unknowing of the invasion of the artist's fears and pent anger.
The artist smeared names onto the wall and labeled them with indignities. Once started, the artist could not stop scripting the hate. The hands paint strokes directed by the whopping command of oppression and suppression. The wall suddenly became small and insufficient to dissipate the heat of hurt molded by hatred. The bricks began to glow red hot. The artist's last statement was made without the benefit of a proper period suggesting more to come.
I woke with a slight pain coursing through my body, wondering what next from this pained soul.