yelling

"i just walked up to her and said, 'i wanna give you a biiig hug,' she looked so bad," the extremely friendly lady told me as we huddled under the sushi restaurant awning. water jumped the curb and lapped at our feet, shin-deep in the streets already. a stressed out mother was screaming at her screaming toddler.

"she was just having a rough day," i agreed. moments earlier, my awning-buddy chased someone off who was trying to call the police on the mother. "i saw it, too. the kid was okay, everyone was just stressed out. it happens."

in a moment, a car started backing in tentatively to the spot the mother vacated. "you've got room!" yelled my awning-buddy. "you've got room!"

she jumped into the street again, umbrella doing little to keep her dry, and enthusiastically waved the new car into its spot. "you know a place to get pizza around here that's not mercurio's?" she asked me once she returned.

"honestly, i don't get pizza this side of town often."

we exchanged names, at her prompting, shook hands, and then she strolled back into the deepening stream in the street towards a bar on the other side.

Permalink
03 July 2018 23:33

to sweat

i dump red chili flakes liberally into hot oil, pushing it around so the smoke burns my eyes. i fill it with chicken powder, mashing it into a paste so i can crack my eggs into it and stir green beans and cold rice into the mush.

my body doesn't sweat well, so i force it to by pressing this mass against the roof of my mouth. and then once i sweat, i crave the salts, so i lick carmelized soy sauce and dehydrated chicken and MSG from the spoon, which makes me so thirty i drink two pints of water in three breaths.

this is the price i pay for being a mammal.

Permalink
02 July 2018 23:00