Bare feet slap down the pavement
In the distance a car alarm goes off
A cacophony of smells reminds me others live here too
Dinner cooking
Evergreen trees
Raw garbage
An old stray cries out
You can almost hear her ribs creaking
I should smell the tobacco of the cigarette between my pointer and middle fingers
But I’ve smoked so many I’ve forgotten what they smell like
The beer in my other hand tastes flat but that’s alright
Next door I can hear laughing
A deep laugh
The kind that melts through the ears and sticks to your ribs
A sudden breeze blows my hair out of my face
When it leaves each strand falls back on to my forehead
Like fingers drumming on a coffee table
I inhale as deep as I can
I open my eyes and all that beauty is broken