Works by Ben Balazs

This sign was across the street from a local church.

The routine remained rote. Boxes were lined up in a somewhat docile arrangement, and their lids were popped open. As the synthetic odor of bubblewrap sizzled in the air, the people became drawn to them. They were drawn like flies to a blue bulb that burned incessantly. Their numbers multiplied and eventually they consumed the pathways and roads, congesting them with phlegm and clean clothing.  The people looked upon the boxes and saw their futures, their wants, and even their fears. Each one was uniquely different, shining with many hues and shades, varying in size and dimension, bending this way and that, yet they were all boxes. They were all made of the same cheap material.  The people didn't pay attention to that. They were too busy waiting for the sun to rise, perky and stretching away the anxious night prior. Almost reflexively, they scuttled into their holes, each to their own, each being sucked up and swallowed into those thin bowels. A moment of reprieve was met b...

"BE" The warning reads, "STAY BEHIND THE YELLOW LINE"

"Please stand clear. The doors are closing." That's how every train ride started. Common folk traveling to common places alone, but together. People shuffled into compact seats with ugly patterns stapled onto them, and they pulled out whatever distraction was most suitable: books, phones, papers, toys if they were young. One could almost call train rides a form of meditation. All the passengers make it their goal to become invisible, silent, forgetful of the other invisibles sitting next to them. Every once in a while people stood out, but even if that happened it was treated as an unacknowledged anomaly.  There was one particular homeless man who sat in the seat across from me on one of these trains. He looked like any stereotypical bum, disheveled and lugging a random assortment of objects behind him. He had a cellphone in his hand that didn't seem too old to make him outdated, nor too new to make him seem like a hypocrite. Every few minutes or so, he would rais...