I have this neighbor who
seems to all the world so sweet and kind.
but she never waters her tulips
out front
and I watch them slowly suffocate.
when I first moved in
she left me chocolate chip cookies
on the doorstep
but she didn’t knock or try
to meet me face to face
which I found odd.
I hear cats meowing from
right inside her house
and can practically feel
their claws at the door
Scratching, whining
does she feed them?
Of course, it's easy for a mind to wander
Late at night
What if she's a serial killer
Or just mentally unstable?
Her cats keep meowing and I
bury my head under the covers until
I'm suffocating just like her tulips.
The other day I saw her walking
with a cat on a leash and
a huge sun hat so I couldn't see her face
just wisps of grey hair and
stumpy legs under a pleated,
floral skirt
I know I'm a creep,
but I couldn't help but
Follow her down the street
Casually, of course
Earbuds in, jamming to
Billy Joel
She walked for miles and I
was panting but she
walked steadily on, not even
breaking her stride
while I wheezed and tried
to stay under cover so she
wouldn’t see
she stopped once and I dove
behind a tree. she
picked up her cat and kept walking
I groaned and followed
eventually, we came to a stop sign at the
edge of the subdivision
where the road turned to dirt and
trailed off into cornfields
I had never noticed the small wooden cross by that
stop sign.
she knelt down and plucked
a few flowers
from her pocket and laid them down
gently,
gently on the ground
she said a short prayer and I watched from a bush
while she shed a few tears, and turned to go back
then I saw her face
Old, but kind
Not at all how I had imagined
late into the night
she didn't see me, but
her cat’s yellow eyes bore right
through the bush into mine
my neighbor walked back, and I
wondered who the cross was
one of her cats, maybe?
I crept closer as she walked
farther away
and I saw a man’s name scratched
Crudely into the wood
and I knew deep inside the
reason for a dried-up lawn and
suffocating flowers
my neighbor was grieving, and I
had assumed the worst
Yet she'd still
brought me cookies
though she couldn't bear to
feed her cats or
water her tulips
I was humbled.
I baked her a batch and
resolved to knock on her door
and hand them to her myself,
but as I raised my hand, I
saw through the window
her,
stroking a cat
with a record on
and she was singing along with
tears that soaked the cat’s fur
I couldn't bear to interrupt,
so I set down the cookies and
walked away.