"TOSSING FIVE POINTS" by Doc Waller (Atlanta: live, food)

[docwaller]

www.thedocwaller.com


Here stands my daily dose of melancholy.

I’d sooner carve it out of myself; as if I were Oedipus, than remain its slave. I try
to endure, believe me, yet passing through the tragic epicenter of nothingness
commonly known as “Downtown Five Points” Atlanta continues to pound at my body
Ali-like; at times, producing sympathetic tears.

This quaint little cemented district, which as a kid, served as the perfect location
for an entertaining weekend family retreat, is now nothing more than the gathering
place for the city’s mass of idly wild. Here, the drama swings on a pendulum; a
smorgasbord of clown activity. The babbling drunks deliver twisted tongue sermons to
passers by. Cigarettes are hand traded like prison currency; “a-qwarter-a-stick.” The
hothead hustlers, who’ve become comically recognizable, emerge from crevices like
reoccurring sitcom actors. Here, the wallflowers chant “any spare change” like a
cherished anthem. The out-of-towners duck and dodge. Fast food reigns [King]. Babies
stroll their babies; their circumstances exhibited. The male youth contently stand,
unchallenged, gawking at the passing “pretty young thangs.” The **** flavored stench
lingers for a mile in every direction.

I am in the land of the lost.

I toss this brief, disquieting, fragment of my day.

www.thedocwaller.com