Big dreams.

as a Saturday and I was outside sitting on the old emergency exit balcony watching men, women, children and elders walk by, the weather was nice and warm for once and I thought I ought to profit from this weather before it left us. It wasn’t the slow paced grandparents or the children that were running around playing tag or skipping rope in the middle of the road that interested me though it was the men, what I was soon to grow up to be. A group of men were sitting around smoking there fags and the lucky ones that used up all there dole money were smoking cigars. These men were rugged and worn out, they looked tired and beat as they sat in their old metal lawn chairs and talked about everything and nothing. Many people and commotions walked passed them and they looked like they didn’t even notice, they kept their old eyes trailed on each other and kept talking about to newest pub in town or any job openings. I thought to myself how ridiculous, how pathetic. These men were sitting here in their chairs wearing their best suits and suspenders hanging down and they were saying how exhausted they were about having to go collect their dole money. Their dole money which they didn’t even earn, it was given to them. The one thing that was given to them, free of charge, free of work yet they still needed to take a break from being so “dignified” it frustrated me to the end, why couldn’t these men stop smoking their cigarettes which would only worsen their consumption and they would eventually die from, and go try to find themselves a well worthy job that would keep food on their families table and heat in their homes. What, what… what losers. That’s what they were they were losers. The men are supposed to be the supporting family member, the member that you can lean on when you’re in need but instead it’s the women. While these men are sitting outside smoking their lives away their wives are inside their homes cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children. They’re the ones who deserve to be going to pick up the dole money, they were the responsible ones, they were the ones who thought with their head and not with their stomach. They slaved away all day long, just like mother did, just like she was doing right now. I turned my head to the right and spied through the window she was holding Michael on her right shoulder while she tried to clean the apartment with one hand, I looked at my mother and knew right there and then that something needed to change. I knew that when one day when I was going to find a woman and marry her she’ll be just like mother, but this time around I won’t be like father, I’ll be a man of respect and dignity. I’ll have a job and make money and we won’t even need the dole that’s how much money well be making, one day it’ll be like that and when that day comes ill buy mother and father and baby Michael a brand new house where they would all live, that’s what I would do.