You asked me about the neighbors. They don’t say much. They don’t mean much. They lie with their backs pressed up against the bubble In which we call home We know so little about each other Besides a name and a face and the color of the outside of your house We judge you by when you put your Christmas decorations up and when you take them down By the cars parked in your driveway By the kind the of dog you own and how often you are outside walking him or by how many flowers you have in your front lawn
You asked me about the neighbors. From my balcony I can peak through the trees to the house of the older couple who Obsessively water their lawn How much water can you use? Isn't your grass green enough? And do you really have to mow the lawn at 7 Sunday morning? And stop losing your cat we are tired of hearing you call her name.
But on Monday evening When the pile of textbooks on my desk is so heavy if you threw it at someone it would **** them And who knows when the studying will be over Settle in It should be a long night
The sound of the little girl’s laughter next door Is like music that sinks deep into my soul And brings a breath of relief Your granddaughter is very beautiful And I think she loves to sit in the Green fresh cut grass with the cat Time doesn’t stop for anybody. I remember when that was me.
The people in the round house with the rickety steps Are too loud. Unstable young people who party too much. The cars parked up and down the road are dotted with tickets the next morning The trash men have trouble with the bags of beer bottles overflowing your garbage can What a crazy night it must have been and all over again next weekend. You barely even made the rent this month But everybody goes through a stage like that And at least you ride your bike And your big brown dog doesn’t chase our cats Im betting in the next six months you should be out And someone just like you will take your place
You asked me about the neighbors. Across the street is the biggest house They just bought an SUV Its bulky and black and you cant see in the windows so most of the time I don’t recognize them That ****** ballerina of a daughter they have should get outside more and her sister too I think the fresh air would do them some good We are surprised to see the maid’s car in their driveway today Arn't they on vacation? Whats the point? We used to have that same maid. But she only came once a week to our house and twice to theirs We decided we didn’t need her anymore Because we can do our own cleaning. When we were little I remember our lemonade stands And pulling each other around in the wagon the mudpies and the sandbox gymnastics on the trampoline They go to the private school and we go to the public. We don’t talk much anymore.
The man and the woman with the golden retrievers are very kind Although maybe they should think about a dog walker Sometimes we worry Powder is going to pull his arm out of its socket and Betty is going to yank her down When we look in the window we can see her knitting She always made me laugh when I saw her at the mailbox He always gave good candy on Halloween and told us funny jokes My brother and I are older now. We don’t talk to them much. All they really have to say when we see them is “How you’ve grown up!”
You asked me about the neighbors. They don’t say much. Most of them have very green grass on their front lawn And we don’t judge them for keeping their Christmas light up year round Cause sometimes we do that too There are no mean dogs Come to think of it no mean people either Sometimes they ask us to water their plants for a week and usually they pay us well Its really no trouble. Who doesn’t like flowers? Your violets are my favorite and your daises are very pretty too. All we have in common is we live on the same street And the same bear attacks our trashcans And we all inhabit a place where sometimes the sunrise is too beautiful to sleep through And so we walk out on the driveway in our bare feet Clutching our coffee cups Grab the paper and stop and look around And breathe the fresh morning air And listen to the silence And wave and smile and say good morning. You asked me about the neighbors. They don’t say much.