To Catch A Breeze

I had a neighbor who liked to catch the breeze of gossip that circled our
neighborhood and paint it with half-starved ravens and dead kittens and
season it with jalapenos and salt.
She had the panels of her kitchen curtains starched open and knew the
moment Mr. Black had a heart attack and did cartwheels and flips on his
way to Burger Heaven.
She knew the moment when the Samson House smoked a cigarette and
became soot and rubble even though it was two a.m. when all decent folk
were dancing at the pub. But she didn’t know the moment when Jessica
was decorated with purple and black and gallons of Crown Royal by her
husband’s infidelities.
She had a date with Regis the Millionaire and knew nothing else.

I had a neighbor who did a slip and slide on his wife, and his wife was the
only one that knew daffodils bloom in the spring, because everyone else
thought his girlfriend was his wife.

I had a neighbor who was diabetic, and her feet puffed till she squaredanced
them to a garbage bag and was in the nursing home.
I am sorry that I forgot to take her flowers, because she sent me some dandelions
and stinging bees on her way to her True Home.

I had a neighbor who kept piles of trash against the siding to keep out the
wind, and no one knew till her house was sold.
At the auction, I paid two pounds of ear wax for a wood table and discovered
the inside of the left leg engraved by rat teeth.

I had a neighbor who lived in a house made of one room schools taped
together.
He knew that he had the right to scrapbook his house and replace every
rusted nail and glue back every bird’s wing that flew into his attic window
and put siding on the sky and throw flowers down his toilet, but he chose
not to do it.
It was his home, and no hand would touch it while he was still fogging
mirrors.

I had a neighbor who called the carpenter when a screw fell out of her
lamp and called the cops to climb the tree when her iguana was stuck.
She called her son the lawyer when she needed groceries, but the night
when Jessica’s husband found another bird to nest and passed the message
by a kiss of gun, my neighbor forgot to call the wedding planner.

• Stacey Allison
• Educational Support Center
• Third Place, Poetry