PISO MOJADO20:13 Dec 19 2008
Times Read: 1,016
PISO MOJADO...
We have a Piso Mojado sign down in the parking garage by a puddle that never seems to dry. No one knows where this puddle comes from. It's just there. Every day. Rather than fix whatever needs to be fixed; the maintenance people put out this little yellow sign.
I like the way the little stick figure guy seems to float - for an eternity - between walking & falling. He's frozen in time; gravity about to betray him, arms about to be flailed, legs about to be sprawled, pride about to be wounded.
He's trapped in mid-slip, wondering what a piso is.
"Piso? Maybe it's a fish, or a type of paint." He thinks this as he barely notices the wet floor. And then it happens... He slips. I want to help him. But he hasn't fallen yet. He hasn't cried out yet. He inhales harshly, reflexively, in anticipation.
Head tilted slightly, he watches his feet take a detour that irreversibly shifts his center of gravity. Is this going to hurt? He thinks of his wife. His children. He thinks of a physics teacher and quickly calculates his mass and something about 32 feet per second squared. He ponders, briefly, the inevitable stubbornness of gravity. He drops something. Keys? Will his wrist break? Probably. Does he have worker's comp? The fluorescent lights seem harsh and cold all of a sudden.
It's quiet here in the parking garage, and all he can hear is his own voice as the scream finally escapes from his little plastic throat.
I hate the sign, you see.
It's his little yellow prison. His nightmare. It never ends. It only starts. And starts. And starts. Forever.
And I walk by, silently cursing his daily eternity in Hell.
COMMENTS
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Morrigon
16:46 Dec 31 2008
Who whudda thought?
If someone went around like that at a party....ugh...
MysticalChild
20:24 Dec 31 2008
it's the poking with a stick i particularly like
i imagined the party scene that Morrigon mentioned
when i got to that bit i cracked up!
happy new year :)
ThothLestat
20:44 Dec 31 2008
Can you imagine someone walking up to you in a library or at the video store and asking Wassup?
Do people really start conversations this way?
I've provided a few hints on my profile about topics that are kinda fun to talk about. Thai food. Music. Movies. Fire. Sarcasm. The apostrophe. Satanic haiku.
*points at profile*
This is called 'a clue'.
No one has even dared to ask for my opinion on the misuse of the apostrophe. Ever.
Don't ask me about it NOW, because now I'm expecting it.
But I really do love the apostrophe. A lot. -- Almost as much as I love pokin' people with a stick.
Ask me 'wassup' and I will bore the hell out of you.
dabbler
21:56 Dec 31 2008
Wassup: Venacular for " What is Up?
Dabblers Common reply: Up is a direction, that goes ^ that way.
Thank you, I'm here all week, tip you journal writer..
ThothLestat
21:58 Dec 31 2008
yup, my favorite answer is:
"UP? Up is about 200 miles, then it becomes OUT.
Isis101
02:24 Jan 01 2009
And just think...more will come in 2009...wassup!