I'm sitting here soaking in all the light from those red, blue, orange and green neon signs that hang about touting the virtues of this or that liquor or beer or malted beverage, and all wanting me to drink up and be merry and stay sharp until the time comes along all stumbling in a drunken daze when she helps me up and over the steps and into the cab. I sit, head banging against side window glass as the thumpty thump of tires over potholes and ruts continues on into that orange night. Finally, stopped outside of this old green and brown garage apartment with its roof all sagging and walls all crooked at every angle but true and windows starting to crack all under the strain of such unsquare happenings in the plain sight of day, the cabbie gets his thirteen-fifty from soft hands with nails all painted pretty and pink. And my wallet goes sliding back down into dirty blue denim pants pocket. The lingering touch sending shivers up to the nape of my neck, and all the time I hear a faint ringing in my ears.

And awaking to afternoon's alien shadows streaming in through window shades, all vinyl and yellowed from time and that acrid smoke and all those people covered in dust coming in and out and always wanting only to talk until finally there is nothing left to be said and they make their way out the crooked door, leaving dusty, crooked foot prints from worn down, crooked boot heels. Into the silence left in their wake, only the sobbing sounds coming from closed bathroom doors and the static hiss from that television with no channels and full volume and all the random chatter filtering in through all those cracked and dusty windows and coming in all through the termite infested walls until the only thing you can hear is the crazy intensity of it all with no distinct shape or form. It becomes a screaming at the top of lungs without any tongue, all mush mouthed vowels and no sense to be made of it all. And always there is that ringing in my ears.

And eventually you get used to all the idle chatter, madhouse scenes, and all the crazy people always coming to and fro and all those people in the streets giving sideways looks at all the impropriety flowing forth from those blue eyes and all those little nothings whispered now at full volume from across the room, across the street, for all the world to hear.