Currently Listening Veneer By Jose Gonzalez Heartbeats see related

Stayed up with Doodlebug all last night because she had a high temp and was throwing up.  Later this evening right before sunset it was cool enough and she felt well enough to come outside and blow bubbles.  I had to keep reminding her to blow downwind so she could watch them blow into the sky or down the street.  sometimes the wind itself would carry them away wo she would try to comman the wind - and I would  say "the wind is big and you are quite small, you can't command the wind to come at will, just to blow your bubbles."  "But you can, huh, Me Ma."  "No, even I'm much smaller than the wind.  The wind is beg enough to make tornados.  Only God is big enough to boss the wind , not me." 

And the old Spanish guy across the street turned from looking down the street and looked across the street at me - and I wonder what he thought  at what I was teaching my grandchild about the wind and the bully bird the other birds were trying to drive off the block every day -

and about the quiet that descended on the street when the birds settled down and the wind died to let you know the sun was just about to set -

that maybe I wasn't just this single woman sitting on the porch trying to catch a man but watching the birds and keeping a weather eye out and watching the grass and the dust and the way the children grew.

So late this evening - I mean late, like 11:30, the other women were out to, sitting on the porches with their children - in the cool of the weekend - letting them ride their big-wheels, and chattering in the sway of the whispering elms and listening to all the evening trains run.  And the men weren't playing the radios so loud - and just maybe this can be a neighborhood for families - for children - for people - where it is safe out at night and we watch out for each other - just maybe.