God bless the neighbors
whoever
they are
this was California not some
suburban enclave or neighborhood in the Midwest where mothers boast they have eyes in the backs of
their heads
not really it was a bright
insidious network arranged between the neighborhood mothers that the CIA or NSA would have wet themselves to have arranged the mothers inspired eyes outdoors fervent
hanging laundry on clotheslines with wooden pins or indoors washing
dishes preparing homecooked meals and watching
out through kitchen windows over their backyards and alleyways
then the kids werent sharp but they didnt have to be it never occurred to them that they were being surveilled
in California that type of collusion didnt exist
white picket fences didnt
separate neighbors on flat lands that ran as far as the eye could see
where playing
golf in the Midwest from scrappy Forest
Preserve hutches to the Country Club clubhouses
all eighteen pin flags could be seen
California homes were either monoliths
nearly bumping into each other at their property lines bathroom windows lined up across from their neighbors bathroom windows or split by wire fences and barren land that sprouted desperate weeds and wildflowers after winter rains maybe
nearly bumping into each other at their property lines bathroom windows lined up across from their neighbors bathroom windows or split by wire fences and barren land that sprouted desperate weeds and wildflowers after winter rains maybe
there
was never never enough water
California has underground rivers
one learned if
someone in the house wasnt on or feeling poorly
betrayed and outed by the colour of their urine
sacrosanct and still between
flushes
necessitated only by bowel movements
necessitated only by bowel movements
Yet
whoever
their neighbors are
God blessem
they wound their thirty-foot palm
three Christmases ago with coloured lights
twisting the strands up its shaft
neglecting its fronded crown
and for the past three nights incredulously it was
lighted
they slept reversed in their bed
to enjoy it through their window
a Christmas contrail rising
in the night and bumping her black belly
knocking to have her spread her legs or roll over and take it taboo
they had no intentions of asking them
why or even informing them of the lights
they felt that when
graced by something
one should never ask why
simply
thank it
and accept it
Oh the dreams that it unraveled
Evening, Monday,
23 2. 15
1314, Twosday, 24 2.
15
