Just Another Day in My Neck O' the Woods

© 2005 Annabelle A. Udo

Chevron Gas Prices o' the Day (19th Avenue)
$2.97
$3.07
$3.17

The neighbor downstairs seems to arrive home every night as if stumbling drunk or just merely pissed off at the world. Under my feet I can feel the angst of his day--of heavy objects being bumped into and moved across the hardwood floors, the toilet seat being slammed up then slammed down, the clacking of pans being rifled through. He is a one-man chaotic band. At one time, the previous neighbor's dog would only bark when its owner had someone to make love to. . .these days, it's all about the emotions of an anonymous bachelor that rumble beneath me. Meanwhile, outside and into my window, pizza and pho create an undigestable aroma that intensifies as it gets closer to midnight. I burn incense to extinguish the smell of this culinary culture clash and I go to sleep. . .and I drift. . .into Tibetan clouds, into the red dust of a New Mexican dawn and into the blue moon of a twilight stroll. The unrecognizable sun arrives and sulks through the dismal fog of another San Francisco day. The early morning bagpipe player wails in the distance. I am tired and await tomorrow by the fire, blowing on the wood beneath its flame