Misery

Misery sets foot on the platform as the doors of the underground train slide open. Brown-skinned, dark-haired, sad-eyed misery, countless scratches crisscrossing his arms and legs, all of his life wrapped in a stained, thick bundle on his shoulder. He moves past averting looks slowly, sluggishly, heavily, heading his steps for no particular direction, everywhere and nowhere, dragging behind a meaningless past, a dysfunctional present, and a stigmatised future. Step by step misery walks away along the platform, pointlessly being, silently present, unbearably light, stubbornly visible, carelessly unconcerned, awkwardly dignified, proudly self-assured, hardly asking for a reaction from the other half of the world.