it was one of those days

one of those days you yanked hard at from the store and treasure trove of prior precious preternatural days against this day to offset its inconvenience its discomfort pain that visits all living things and should render everyone commiserate and compassionate earthlings

he could hear his daughters his girlfriend in his ears Earthlings Youre the only one I know or have ever heard who says earthlings

he tendered them Right

a word he heard incessantly these days often repeated over and over again in single conversation which playfully tempted him to try and elicit the word as many times as he could running out of fingers and toes counting before they concluded their chitchat

on another day he would have been critical of a morning tumbler of whisky a morning cigar or a seemingly unpossessed mind sitting in the sun absorbing only its company

he fingered through his Patagonia jacket a petite blue stone beaded bracelet his granddaughter gave him that she bought with money he gave her for her birthday to spend as her fast three year old mind wanted which she bought and when they last saw each other on a visit north to him she gave him because among their California family and friends none had blue eyes except she and him his longshot genetic gift to her that somehow shook out in the churn of slim possibilities

a crazy little bond between them

his jacket sitting in the sun unoccupied reminded him of his boyhood and the old men he knew along his paper route sitting then as he sat now their Frankenstein monster staggering when they moved their audible sharp deep grunts and groans as he cried to them No sit Ill bring it to you and ran effortlessly up to them and put it into their impatient hands

Are you feeling better to-day

Dont matter how Im feeling I got me another beautiful day Waking in the morning alive is a wondrous gift

one by one they died

but he didnt forget their enthusiasm shining through their maladies or occasional twisted grimaces not their remarks or how they took the papers in their shaky hands like keen binoculars looking back into a forgetful past(no brain could possibly retain all those years and moments and stories) or furtively like voyeurs peering into the future

Thank you they said

Youre welcome See you tomorrow

God willing

though even as a boy he knew God had nothing to do with it

they were kind animals who dug in hid their backsides and if anything wanted a piece of them theyd have to come onto them face-to-face

they werent rolling over or going to make it easy

one by one they died

but thats how earthlings are

cherishing their precious lives no matter the odds no matter how insignificant someone ignorant thought they appeared

one learned a lot if they kept their mouths shut and eyeballs peeled

it was one of those days

1211,  Thursday,  19  5. 16