the alley cats at play
where i live, there's an alley in the shape of a T behind the iron stairs down. we live where the crossbar meets the vertical line & we see it all, all the people we know & their children & their cats, because there are a lot of children here & even more cats. so i come home to kids playing ball; maude & i join in. it's like a small town within a city, everything i need so close by home but even more beyond the limits of what i can see (the mountain is my guide, really).
so late last night we're still out, & maude & i bring beer to francis, we sit outside in his backyard while shawn & his daughter mia play, attempt death-defiance as well as a two- & five-year-old can & time slips by. it's relaxing with the tiki torches & two small candles on the rickety table on the grass.
mia proudly shows us her plush horse & we give her a tiger so they can be friends. shawn catapults off the patio & onto the grass, a skinned knee that becomes funny when we give him a foam sword & il me tue. people drop by in fragments, sophie, mélodie, joshua.
& maude finds francis attractive; for a few hours she forgets how she hates her job & really lives for fridays.
so late last night we're still out, & maude & i bring beer to francis, we sit outside in his backyard while shawn & his daughter mia play, attempt death-defiance as well as a two- & five-year-old can & time slips by. it's relaxing with the tiki torches & two small candles on the rickety table on the grass.
mia proudly shows us her plush horse & we give her a tiger so they can be friends. shawn catapults off the patio & onto the grass, a skinned knee that becomes funny when we give him a foam sword & il me tue. people drop by in fragments, sophie, mélodie, joshua.
& maude finds francis attractive; for a few hours she forgets how she hates her job & really lives for fridays.