THE NEIGHBORS

“I love you, I love you, I love you!” she cried to the sky,
With her arms open wide and up, as if trying to fly.

She spoke to the soul who departed not long ago –
And went back to sleep on the floor as she guarded his door.

“I am here just to feed them dogs,” she would hoarsely say.
Let them out, open up, and don’t worry – I’ll stay away.

Let’em your goddamn dogs come with me for a walk to pee."
He appeared at the threshold, disheveled as one can be,

In a robe, with a towel tied ‘round his crazy head,
With a spark of reason in the eyes that had long turned mad.

And he softly said, as if back to earth, as if back to sane:
“I’m so sorry, ma’am. I’m so sorry, that’s what I’m sayin’.”

And the two went back to their rowdy, sad romance,
Now warmly lit with the soul that touched them once.

And another man sang “I shall not want” in the hall
Of that poor building to honor the leaving soul.

I just stood there, musing at how no grief, no curse
Can obscure the soul when it rises above the earth.

She refused the priest, she ignored the friend at her side,
She no longer felt like pretending at being kind,

Yet the universe – on our block, and four blocks around –
Clothed her name in love, like a comforting golden cloud.

All the wacky folk, their prescriptions and rent unpaid,
Lack of sleep and patience, their halos of dubious shade –

All who clamored, labored, fought over the last two pence,
Recognized their kin: her glamour of no pretense.

And the livid sea in the country far far away
Flexed its shiny muscle, its bulgy Odessan wave.

6.24.2025