Noise
Sitting here with half a wall between my roommate and I
I scratch my ear and wonder how loud I am being to him
Some days we talk over the top of the wall to each other
But tonight his light is dim and I am high
So I settle into the motion of pretending like perhaps the wall really is finished and we do not have this immediate contact
A personal contact
I wonder if he can smell robins shit here in the litter box
The litter box is actually just an aluminum barbecue style tray for holding such things as Mac and cheese and baked beans
Sometimes kitty litter
And sometimes robin misses
Like last night
But anyways
How much can he hear me breathing?
Can he hear me thinking this?
Does he hear my heart beating?
The sound of me unscrewing the cap off my bottle of port and pouring a glass?
My fingers typing these words into my phone?
Thinking?
I think of frenchie saying to me as I settled into bed one night
“You’re so loud, man”
Or something of the sorts
And I’ve thought about that since
How loud I must seem to people around me
Especially in the strange circumstance that we are separated by half of a wall
And then again thinking
I think of frenchie easing into the society girl
The Paris hottie
I was at the auto parts store buying some part or other for my car someday in Santa Barbara and she so happened to come along
There we were in the store and as I was shopping the employees at Larry’s took an immediate attention to this fair dark skinned maiden with her evilishly low top and plump chocolate breasts
So chat chat with the Paris girl and I go to pay
At the register I hear behind me
Do you mind if we take your picture to make you customer of the week?
And so I pay and we leave
Next week I end up back at Larry’s and as I’m paying a little picture frame with a gold tag catches my eye
CUSTOMER OF THE WEEK
This beautiful French woman is there looking back at me with a look that I can hardly convey in words
A look as if she had won
As if she knew she had won
And there she was
Looking at me and knowing people would be drooling and gazing back into the frame at her
And there was my red checkered flannel hunched over the counter in the background handing over my money
Behind the main attraction all you could see was my disembodied back there at the counter
Well some French talk between the beds
as I slept on the couch
No big deal
A nice language
But it was getting steamy and my American ears need no grasp on French to understand that
So one was up and in the others bed
So I think of that
Maybe I was loud settling into bed for a moment
But I wasn’t fucking some Paris chick
While I thought you were asleep
Or at least pretended that you were asleep
Where have I gotten?
Well they warned me that my roommate and his girlfriend had loud sex
But they were fairly respectful the other night when she stayed over
It’s just different to be having sex than to be doing other things
Maybe it’d be cool sometimes
I’d prefer to have some notice in advance however
But nonetheless I’m not opposed to the idea of a roommate openly enjoying the pleasures of intercourse in my presence
But sometime just please no
And as I quietly write I see that my roommate is much louder than I
This is where I have gotten
A point of outlook
Losing frequency
Dehydrated
Perched on the half open eyes
Overlooking slumber
I scratch my ear and wonder how loud I am being to him
Some days we talk over the top of the wall to each other
But tonight his light is dim and I am high
So I settle into the motion of pretending like perhaps the wall really is finished and we do not have this immediate contact
A personal contact
I wonder if he can smell robins shit here in the litter box
The litter box is actually just an aluminum barbecue style tray for holding such things as Mac and cheese and baked beans
Sometimes kitty litter
And sometimes robin misses
Like last night
But anyways
How much can he hear me breathing?
Can he hear me thinking this?
Does he hear my heart beating?
The sound of me unscrewing the cap off my bottle of port and pouring a glass?
My fingers typing these words into my phone?
Thinking?
I think of frenchie saying to me as I settled into bed one night
“You’re so loud, man”
Or something of the sorts
And I’ve thought about that since
How loud I must seem to people around me
Especially in the strange circumstance that we are separated by half of a wall
And then again thinking
I think of frenchie easing into the society girl
The Paris hottie
I was at the auto parts store buying some part or other for my car someday in Santa Barbara and she so happened to come along
There we were in the store and as I was shopping the employees at Larry’s took an immediate attention to this fair dark skinned maiden with her evilishly low top and plump chocolate breasts
So chat chat with the Paris girl and I go to pay
At the register I hear behind me
Do you mind if we take your picture to make you customer of the week?
And so I pay and we leave
Next week I end up back at Larry’s and as I’m paying a little picture frame with a gold tag catches my eye
CUSTOMER OF THE WEEK
This beautiful French woman is there looking back at me with a look that I can hardly convey in words
A look as if she had won
As if she knew she had won
And there she was
Looking at me and knowing people would be drooling and gazing back into the frame at her
And there was my red checkered flannel hunched over the counter in the background handing over my money
Behind the main attraction all you could see was my disembodied back there at the counter
Well some French talk between the beds
as I slept on the couch
No big deal
A nice language
But it was getting steamy and my American ears need no grasp on French to understand that
So one was up and in the others bed
So I think of that
Maybe I was loud settling into bed for a moment
But I wasn’t fucking some Paris chick
While I thought you were asleep
Or at least pretended that you were asleep
Where have I gotten?
Well they warned me that my roommate and his girlfriend had loud sex
But they were fairly respectful the other night when she stayed over
It’s just different to be having sex than to be doing other things
Maybe it’d be cool sometimes
I’d prefer to have some notice in advance however
But nonetheless I’m not opposed to the idea of a roommate openly enjoying the pleasures of intercourse in my presence
But sometime just please no
And as I quietly write I see that my roommate is much louder than I
This is where I have gotten
A point of outlook
Losing frequency
Dehydrated
Perched on the half open eyes
Overlooking slumber