Right on Baker, Left on Grove.

Last week as we walked home from the grocery store
with canvas bags full of groceries slung over our shoulders.
I realized that in a collection of only forty odd days
we have been reshaped into new beings.

In the morning we rise and throw back the lace curtain
to see if our eyes opened before the restaurant across the street flipped
the sign in the window to {Open| Abierto}.

We wait for the elderly lady with the gray poodle to walk by
and we always nod and smile as she tells us the same story every time
about how that little dogs helps her get exercise despite her arthritis.

we think of as many similes as our brains can concoct
to describe the way the fog rolls in off the ocean.
like a quilt over the city streets, like the thick froth of my morning coffee.

we read the paper. and carry cash in our pockets because
every little hole in the wall restaurant here requires it.
We buy fresh flowers every Sunday
and save glass bottles to use as vases.

We have become accustomed to the sounds of living.
To the slamming of truck doors and the whirl of the street sweepers.
The metal ching ching of the zero emission buses connected to the wires above
and when someone starts yelling on the sidewalk, at nothing and everyone,
just because they can,
we rarely look up anymore.

This change....
it is such a dynamic and curious transformation.
The things happening to us.
Bound by the knowledge that brought us this far
and at the same time,
Affected to the core by this new impetus and
ten fingers full of unfamiliar experiences.

I like the way it smells at the very top of the park.
I miss my best friend.
I've never eaten so many peaches in my life.
I don't miss driving a car at all.

~M