Staples

There are a few consistencies I can count on at the moment.

Living downtown with a new puppy means, we are outside.

A lot,

Never had this been more apparent then when Harper had passed,

We were well into our fifth month of quarantine,

And for the first time in 12 years, I had not left my apartment-

Not for anything.

I didn't like it.

We were living in an alley facing Unit at the time,

And I could hardly tell of the passing of time.

With only a brief 2 hour window of light on one third of our apartment,

You couldn't have paid me to tell you what time it was,

or if it there was a cloud in the sky.

Then,

More months passed,

We were moving-

Same building,

Four floors up.

I shifted my attention to packing.

Still-

Quarantine,

No reason to go outside.

We moved,

then attention into setting the new place up,

Lighting,

Windows, a sky light.

The outside trickled in, still not tempted to head outside.

When it appeared safe,

we began playing tennis consistently,

Mon-Fri at the park, a few miles down the road,

My partner is a tennis gangster,

I tend to get distracted,

Just happy to be outside,

There is a hilltop cat,

who struts for sun,

An old dog,

would just sit,

with his owner

the two of them-

Pashtun, French?

I tried to look it up,

Perhaps I'll never know.

It made me happy,

and sad,

all at the same time.

I wondered what the owners work was, pre pandemic,

I hadn't asked his name...

One day,

they stopped coming.

What a chapter of a long and beautiful road.

Then along came Chessa,

Our Pig,

Still waiting for her final round of shots,

our outings have been a little limited,

At just four months/40 lbs

she still has dashes of crazy.

Today she lost a tooth,

Found bloody in her crate,

off the foot of her demolished monkey,

A hand me down from my last bits of crazy.

I pulled the monkey sock out of her throat like a parlor trick

Of a circus act who swallowed her sword.

Home now is never dull,

If not monotonous.

On my block today,

I passed one of Downtowns staples.

Lets call him a "commodities broker"

Like always a nod & brief hello,

Noticing Chessa,

He says,"You got a new one"

"Had to. Went from two, down to one, then three legs, now, here we are"

He says, "Gotta keep going"...

Yes sir...Gotta keep going.

A moment, in passing from one human to another.

I've seen him on that corner for the better part of three years.

Always kind, always a nod

A human interaction,

Acknowledgement of time passing,

A recognition of starting new.

The next chapter.

Life is not always easy,

He doesn't probably give anymore thoughts to me,

besides coming and going.

But I think of him, and want to know more.

A brief interaction can turn someones whole day around,

And we would never even know.

This is where I find gratitude,

exposure

On my block,

of someone,

who on the outside of it,

may appear quite different to me,

And yet a nod and hello,

closes that divide.

Without judgement or need.

For a moment-

we stand in the same place.

Feeling the same breeze,

Warmed by the same sun.

...Hearing the same crosswalk,

It's not always this simple,

But when it is,

I am left with lightness in this life,

Grateful that I don't have to remind myself to breath,

Somethings just happen naturally,

When we go outside,

take a stroll,

and step out of the way.