from the Ohio River to the Hudson…accents change..landscapes differ..Christmas trees in Wheeling windows… artificially colored in reds..greens.. whites..glistening strands of silver slivers dance in the day break.

at the Greyhound station in Pittsburgh.. a black kid sagging points toy guns at real life figures on a screen…one dead..two dead..a mass killing while a television show called Pittsburgh Lives explores the question,How white are your teeth?..

“Damn, that mother fucker be dead,” the kid rejoices while two white chicks with tanning bed tans pitch The Power Swab…look at the shine on those chompers.

the PA Turnpike keeps going and going..stops at service islands and small towns…paler than pale zombies walk the streets picking up sugar packets and burnt out butts. “You gotta dollar?”…

and New York comes into view…57,000 homeless reported..add another 20 grand.. 

Elmo poses for pictures in Times Square…selfies snapped in seconds by the celebrated youth of today…the smartest generation our country’s seen.. they say.

in bar windows shifting pictures of bodies on stretchers and endless words scrolling underneath… you cannot help but look-on.

i’m reminded of the old Reagan campaign ad, “It’s morning in America again.”
it is mourning indeed.