Let me devour what's inside you.
-- 'Please Please Please,' Head Automatica

Party People,

A group of 5 men in yellow hardhats stood around. Their bellies distended and eyes squinted in enjoyment and their thick necks and faces were red with mirth. They laughed. Another man in a hard hat swung the axe at the tree and the shaft bit back and hurt his hands as the blade slammed against the tree trunk and just ricocheted back with only a loud pop but without any cut to the bark.

"Guddam," the man said. He dropped the axe handle and shook out his hands.

The tree, in the middle of the road, had grown as tall as a two story building. Its canopy reached across both sides of the street to cover the sidewalk and this city block was left in shade.



They had blocked this portion of the street and detoured traffic to go around. The people of this city weren't happy.

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Going Green A Nuisance?

Today, city workers are finding a nuisance in form of a large tree, which had mysteriously sprang up in the middle of one of the city's main thorough ways. Currently, no one knows how the tree got there, but they want it out of there, now.

Yeah, as you see, it stands there right in the middle of Main like a stubborn bastard, ooop. Can I say bastard on TV?

That's Main Street. Officials say that all attempts to cut the tree down have been unsuccessful. From electric saws to swinging a plain hand axe at the thing. It just won't come down. They've now decided to use a bulldozer. This, however, will mean that portion of Main Street will be closed while they uproot the tree, and then repair the asphalt.

All who take Main to work or those heading into Downtown this weekend for a bit of shopping, you might want to take the backstreets and prepare for some light traffic.

Just look at that thing. Massive. That's one stubborn you-know-what, isn't it? What? I'm not going to say it. You heard the man. Hehehe.

Next we have live feed from the City Zoo where Brian Fantana has an update on pregnancy of Ling the Panda, Brian. . .



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Bulldozers are cool. I've never seen one before. It sounds like a tank coming in. A number of us had stopped to see them trying to take down the tree. Just heard about it this morning. Apparently it was such a big thing. A tree grown out of Main Street.

Dave and I somehow got to the front of the crowd that had gathered to murmur on the sidewalk. Such a big production. The had yellow caution tape up and squad cars in the background with their red and blue's flashing. Officers stood here and there watching things. A crew of fat workers in hardhats loafing around shooting the shit.

Dave said, "a heavy saw, you know the one they use on those big redwoods in the forests, blades look like plates. They went at it with a heavy saw and the thing just broke down. The blade bent and sparks and all that. Smoke. And on the tree not even a scratch."

"You really believe that? This is a tree we're talking about here."

"I don't know."

"How'd the tree even get here? Isn't there someone supposed to watch for things like this. Our tax money goes somewhere, right?"

Someone down the way began yelling. A woman. "Hey. We understand that the road needs to be clear. But, you better replant it somewhere. Keep this thing alive. They keep sick prisoners on death row alive. You can keep the tree alive and safe. Keep the tree safe. Keep the tree safe." A few people there began chanting with her.

Environmental nuts. I understood then why there were so many officers there. The police stared out at the crowd with taciturn eyes. I looked trying to see the woman but there were so many people. All I saw was a picket sign bobbing above the heads, simply said SAVE THE TREES PLEASE. Soon everyone started pushing up behind me when the bulldozer sounded, rumbling some few blocks away. I was excited. Bulldozer.



All heads turned toward the sound and quiet set in among the onlookers. Dave and I were quiet too. I thought how much of a life I didn't have. Saturday afternoon, standing here just to see a tree taken down. Somewhere someone was zip lining over a hot jungle in a semi-dangerous harness prepared by third-world inhabitants. Somewhere else someone else was in the middle of great sex. How could I get my thrills just from a tree?

Under the cover of the bulldozer's grumble, getting louder as it got closer, there was suddenly another sound just beneath my feet. Like rope tightening. I glanced down and saw the sidewalk and the shoes of those standing on either side of me. The bulldozer got louder and louder, grumbling and grumbling, it came in sight and the woman yelled again.

"Take it down responsibly. Outrage if you destroy that tree."

"Shut up," someone else said.

"You shut up."

"I hope it goes down fast."

"Heartless biggot. Keep the tree safe. Keep the tree safe."

What was that sound? I looked back down and that tightening sound underfoot continued. I saw nothing. Something under the sidewalk. I looked at the tree. Then at the bulldozer which was rolling up and its claw lifting like a warrior's hand telling its opponent to bring it on.

"Did you hear that?"

"What?" Dave said.

That tightening sound wouldn't stop. And the bulldozer was coming.

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She secretly wanted to see destruction. Whether it was the uprooting of the tree and the rubble of the asphalt and dirt clinging to the massive roots which looked like rugged tentacles or somehow the bulldozer in meeting the indestructible stubborn tree smashing against the immovable trunk and breaking down, the claw bending back, the cage with the operator inside crushing against the bark and the operator bursting like a squeezed balloon full of blood, and smoke puffing out of the engine before it all just crumbles. Preferably she wanted to see that, where the bulldozer breaks down. There was more destruction in that. But none of it happened. The claw just pushed up against the wood. The engine of the bulldozer revved hard. The crowd around her cooed a little. Then the front wheels of the bulldozer lifted off the ground, came back to the ground, lifted, then came back down again. Then they stopped. All the workers stood around scratching their heads. A police officer went to talk to the foreman. All of a sudden a loud chatter and hissing of walkie talkies.

She was really, really disappointed.

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"Indestructible."

"Really."

"Really."

"Nothing can take that thing down."

"I wonder what they're going to do now."

"Should take explosives to the thing."

"Ooo. Yeah. Like satchel charges. All around the base."

"Booom."

"Yeah."

"Must have some strong roots."

"Must have."

"Shit."

"Shit."

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It digs its claws into the earth. The loam feels good against its skin. Those little things that scurry about its stomach tickle and make it laugh inside. But it can feel their anger too. Something that they can't control. Soon it will change, however. Soon they will change. Or die.

All the ugly people be quiet!
--Will Smith the Fresh Prince on a Def Jam Tour, (circa 1980's)

Party People,



This night in the middle of a Metropolis busy because yellow headlights and red taillights shoot between the buildings, like they were the city's life-blood and the streets the veins and arteries, in the middle of a street busy because you are there and see the cars rushing by and hear the the susurrus of tires sliding on road under all the clattering voices and clanking of struck sewer gratings and are shouldered by unnoticing people rushing just as frenzied and anxious, someone steps off from the sidewalk.

Just a figure wearing a dark sweatshirt, hood over the head, and sweat pants, you can't tell if he is a he or she is a she. This person steps onto the street and a car approaches. The anonymous is made a shadow in between the headlights. The car swerves to avoid a hit. Long after the car passes its horn lingers and the sound slowly fades into the din of everything else. The figure keeps moving across, more cars passing honk.

This one, in dark fatigue, stands there in the middle of the street and is out of view for only a moment. A woman with a strange feathered hat has stepped in the way. It takes just that split second. When the woman takes her next step and the view is clear again, this person in the middle of the street is gone. Not on the other side. No where.

It could have been a daydream. You watch a lot of TV and you read enough books. You have good imagination. Later that night when you're home in bed laying awake for a moment you go over the things you have to do tomorrow. You hear your lover breath harder as she begins to dream next to you. Kiss her goodnight on the cheek. You close your eyes. The next day that small little moment transpired last evening will not even be a memory.

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The kid liked to bike to school in the morning because there were not too many people around. He biked to where things were a cacophony just hours ago. Now, just a handful of sleepy people in suites, overcoats and work dresses walking with attache cases swinging or purses clutched close to the ribs to get their morning coffee.

The kid barely slowed to see if there was oncoming traffic and rode on. He stood with his hands on the handles, more power for his pedalling. Eyes squint because of the cold, warm tears forming at the corners, his vision blurred a little. About the middle of the road his bike suddenly stopped moving and he was flipped tossed from the momentum and wound up on his back on the asphalt. Good thing he wore a helmet.

He lay there for a moment. The sky was grey and the air cooled his eyes. Someone on the sidewalk said something in surprise. But no one yet calling out to check if he was alright. No one come up to help him. Just the sky and the city towers reaching up in his periphery.

"What the hell."

When the kid stood, he pressed up from the ground and looked to see what his bike had caught on. A few feet behind him, his bike lay on the street and a small plant was there sprung from an open crack. Just a foot tall, it looked like the beginning of a tree.



"What the hell."

How would something like that spring from the ground, here, in the middle asphalt in the middle of a wide road, he didn't know. Someone should do something about it. He kicked at the plant and it didn't move, it's hard green stock stood strong. The leaf attached to the tiny point at the top just shivered as a slight breeze swept through the street. Real green.

The kid stood his bike up and wheeled it to the other side of the street before he mounted it again and went on his way to school. Just a small shock in the morning. No big deal.