Neighbor

This is for Waco

who lives in the next building over

whose kitchen door opens

opposite my kitchen door

in the narrow passage that runs

between our two shoebox apartments

who smokes cigarettes down to the filter

or farther

who keeps more girlfriends than I do

and who salutes every passing woman

young or old good-looking or not

with a smile and a

Hallo baybee

and is always saluted back

This is for Waco

who sings up to the windows of crying children

in the apartment above us

Canta no llores

who was born and raised in Norway

and came for work in the harbor

who sailed with the Merchant Marines in WWII

and whose knotty forearms bloom blots of indigo ink

who ambles with two canes

on legs as badly bowed as my grandfather’s

whose face is furrowed from decades outdoors

but whose stub-fingered handshake

still clasps like a vise

who was the only neighbor to introduce himself first

when I first moved to this town

and who I sit with sometimes over coffee or beer

whose small company in this narrow passage keeps us

in conversation and laughter

which I will remember long after his time here is up

and I have moved on

Joseph Peralta is an English teacher and writer living in Oakland, CA. He’s published poetry, fiction, and nonfiction in various small journals, local magazines, and newspapers, in print and online. Some names include Open Letters, Bird’s Thumb, Spry, The Good Men Project, Rip Rap, San Pedro Today, The District Weekly, and Random Lengths News. In addition to 3rd & Orange, he’s currently completing work on another collection of poems called Gross Americana, and in the middle of a new biographical portrait of Depression-era writer John Fante. You can learn more at Joshuaperalta.net. 

Website: Joshuaperalta.net

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