neighbourhood nom both came from the same neighbourhood 060625 ... nom they 060625 ... nom this is my neighbourhood is this my neighbourhood? it feels like it i guess that's why i came back 070202 ... nom what am i doing here what am i doing anywhere i could just disappear somewhere 070325 ... ovenbird The new neighbourhood looks nothing like the old one. Here there are lovely streets lined with mature beeches and maples and birches, with tidy yew hedges and carefully maintained lawns and rhododendrons in full bloom. The yards belong to neat colonial style houses, red brick, windows flanked by pretty shutters, and proud columns framing each front door. It’s quiet. There’s no one sitting on the porches. No traffic. No children playing in the yards. In the old neighbourhood people slammed their doors all night and had noisy parties on their back decks. The grass was left to grow knee high to hide the dog shit no one picked up. Driveways featured broken down cars and rusty folding chairs and bags of junk no one ever bothered to take to the Salvation Army (though they meant to, at some point in the ancient past.) People smoked while milling about on the crumbling concrete of their front stoops. They let their dogs bark all day and all night. Here it’s hard to tell if the houses are occupied. I don’t see movement within—no curtains stirring, no cats peering from windows, no one playing basketball in the driveway. It’s peaceful in the way that cemeteries are peaceful, nearly lifeless except for the birds. I think I would enjoy being a ghost here. I imagine leaving everything behind and moving into one of these airy homes with high ceilings and stainless steel appliances. I would wake early and greet the finches before walking a lap around the pond. I would have tea in the yard and eggs and toast for breakfast. I would wear white and stare wistfully out the windows and no one would know I was there. More and more, it seems, I dream of living alone. I want days that are mine to waste as I please. I want to die to the world so I have a chance to live. 260728 what's it to you? who go blather from