Friday, April 05, 2013
Neighborhood
-Did all the things my parents did. And when I finally
got my own apartment, followed suit.
-Like?
-Went to Crabby Cal’s.
-Not so bad I hear.
-Cal an indifferent chef, but buys the best in meats,
breads, produce. Doesn’t ruin anything.
-High praise indeed!
-Go to same barber my father does. Every chubby finger a powerhouse of garlic! I can’t breathe by the time he spritzes witch hazel on my neck!
-Kind of a prisoner of the neighborhood?
-Not the half of it! And they didn’t have the spiffy twins of washer-dryer from Sears. We always used a laundry. Man did that place smell of coal dust! Had some big commercial accounts too and stoked the boilers with soft coal. My clothes still have, like, a sulphur whiff to them.
-So THAT’S what that is? I thought Lucifer was stepping round.
-Some day I’ll make a clean break and move downtown.
-Where the action is!–-or as much as this sleepy burg
can muster.
-And the women! Daughters of friends.
-Good stock enough.
-Enchantresses all! Trying to trick you into forty-fifty years of homegrown sex before you’re
thrown into the ground!
-Hey! You don’t think they haven’t got their sisters
stationed downtown?
-There’s really no hope for anything.
-Psychiatrists say you hafta change yourself. And then
the whole world gets in line. A desultory process,
but they have no choice due to your new-found power.
-A miracle! They might as well be priests.
-Well, much as this happy horseshit edifies, got dental
appointment. See you around.
-I’ll be there.
-Did all the things my parents did. And when I finally
got my own apartment, followed suit.
-Like?
-Went to Crabby Cal’s.
-Not so bad I hear.
-Cal an indifferent chef, but buys the best in meats,
breads, produce. Doesn’t ruin anything.
-High praise indeed!
-Go to same barber my father does. Every chubby finger a powerhouse of garlic! I can’t breathe by the time he spritzes witch hazel on my neck!
-Kind of a prisoner of the neighborhood?
-Not the half of it! And they didn’t have the spiffy twins of washer-dryer from Sears. We always used a laundry. Man did that place smell of coal dust! Had some big commercial accounts too and stoked the boilers with soft coal. My clothes still have, like, a sulphur whiff to them.
-So THAT’S what that is? I thought Lucifer was stepping round.
-Some day I’ll make a clean break and move downtown.
-Where the action is!–-or as much as this sleepy burg
can muster.
-And the women! Daughters of friends.
-Good stock enough.
-Enchantresses all! Trying to trick you into forty-fifty years of homegrown sex before you’re
thrown into the ground!
-Hey! You don’t think they haven’t got their sisters
stationed downtown?
-There’s really no hope for anything.
-Psychiatrists say you hafta change yourself. And then
the whole world gets in line. A desultory process,
but they have no choice due to your new-found power.
-A miracle! They might as well be priests.
-Well, much as this happy horseshit edifies, got dental
appointment. See you around.
-I’ll be there.
Labels: leaving nest, neighborhood, parochial, young men
