One of my neighbors
in the building she’s been here
as many years as I have
45 years in this very same spot
May was a successful
avant garde singer that is
she’d loudly shriek
from a few floors down
and we’d all hear her
May was young and attractive
another neighbor called her foxy
she’d shriek often and was hailed
by the Village Voice as
the Penultimate Performer
she had boyfriends who looked
like they shrieked too
all very skinny
she’s as old as the rest of us now
still thin she moved
from singing to sewing
barely said hello for 40 years
she was very busy
that changed with age
and the pandemic and now
she has a lot to say:
aging (n.g.) and men (n.g.)
and the music industry (n.g. too)
and weather and falling
and foods that aren’t organic.
Still yesterday when
we ran into one another
in the lobby she doesn’t
go out in cold weather
for reasons of neuropathy
I reflexively asked How Are You
and she replied, for the first time ever,
Almost Fine.
Almost fine. Love it.
Love May!