I had nothing to hide. Across the looming presence of the chariots

of the wealthy, I eyed an aged man. You’d think a wise poet, but

no, a destitute vagabond. Disheveled as he appeared, his eyes were healthy. They appeared to sparkle like the wistful flirting

of fireflies. Suddenly, they crystallized. The city holds many dark promises. The man knew it's peculiarities, the ominous sense of danger. He, as a nomad, knew the secrets to the city’s veil of

flawlessness. 

With no bed to head to, he had no reason to repel the attacker. 

He was leading a passionate life without purpose, an outcast. 

The cloud of greed in my mind dissipated. By others, we had

been deemed different. Yet, our differences were insignificant,

our spiritual longing, tethered us together like a golden string. 

I discovered a wellspring of energy within me as I risked my

life. In between my breaths and strides, I lost myself. By the

time I had struck the attacker I was already liberated. With the

soft thud of my case against the attacker’s head. I discovered my

new self. As my hat flew off, locks of hair and beads of sweat flew out. 

The new reality I’d discovered was as liberating as it was dark. No one had forced this realization upon me. I discovered it myself, as I had to discover the rest of life as well. The rest of the stairwell of life could not remain untraveled. The stairwell of life, if explored by nobody else, might as well be explored by me.