Saturday, May 22, 2021

Dousing Hostility

neighbourhood cartoon

On her own her smile of greeting is ivory

white and wide, effusively 'Hi!' whereas in

his company both avert their gazes, the

neighbours of thirty years from whom

cold distance emanates to the extent that

before the gates of unfriendship went up

he would merely cross the street to avoid

countering someone but now he pivots to

head in a different direction, a lost soul

socially dissonant, evasive and skilled in

avoidance of civil discourse or contact. 

Today they walked by as a neighbour

pumped a flat tire, stopped midstream to

a mission where most would pause and

offer help. Was it mean, that frisson of

satisfaction when that ignored elderly

neighbour once more embarking on that

aborted mission passed them strolling by

just as a sudden cloudburst let loose?

 

 

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