Snow Melt

Early Morning in a Sleep Deprived City

The August 8, 2013 prompt for "Blogging Circle of Friends Prompt Forum"  is
Describe your favorite setting and why? Is it early morning? Mid- afternoon? Is it sunset? The middle of the night?

The first rays of dawn
scatter the blue light of day
across Las Vegas.

Early morning clouds
become scarlet pools of blood
above the mountains.

Shift Change

The grave yard shift clocks out and the day shift clocks in. The heartbeat of the city increases and the tourist cautiously exit their hotel rooms. A local news reporter discusses a shooting in a residential neighborhood with a police officer. She asks if the shooting was gang related, but the police are still investigating and have no suspects. All that is known (at least by those watching the news program) is that two people are in serious condition at a local hospital and a third victim is in the morgue. The names of the victims are being with held until the families can be notified.

Individuals
wake up cautiously slowly,
but the city never sleeps.

An insomniac
Las Vegas yawns as it sips
morning's bright coffee.

Sleep Deprivation

Illusions and reality collide as the city pushes its suburbs farther and farther into the desert and up the sides of mountains. Coyotes prowl, both gated and ungated suburban communities, looking for easy prey in domesticated animals. These newly paved streets and manicured lawns were once their hunting grounds; therefore, they ignore the rules of civilization and leave their scat1 scattered on lawns and sidewalks with the bones of last night dinner. People complain to animal control, their local politicians, and police, whose only options are live traps or a shoot to kill policy. Is it possible that chronic sleep deprivation has made the city forget that it is the invader and not the coyotes?

Thought of the Day: "Las Vegas is a 24-hour city. It never stops." - Eli Roth

Footnotes
1  "an animal fecal dropping " http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scat