just sitting up there almost at the top of the hill next to the oh so fab sushi place right down from the ice cream we all scream for

it just sits there

little leave it to beaver kitchen backdoor top half opens like there might be a freshly baked berry pie perched atop the shelf atop the bottom door half

itself covered with a red and white checkered dishrag

i mean

it could be but it ain’t it’s just ray’s french cleaners and there ain’t no ray there’s just edmund and his wife and i met them when i first moved to the hill and the second time i walked in edmund he greeted be my name

well hello mister joebob

with a big old grin

sincere and soft

and he asks about my day with a little tilt of the head that curious tilt that listening tilt he seems to really care genuinely is interested i mean it’s just a little thing it ain’t much of a thing but it’s oh so nice

the warmth of humanity

it’s still there right there in the middle of the day

something to dig

and it’s saturday afternoon it’s so easy starting my errands there started going there when i moved onto union street into the tall building at the top o’ the hill in the middle of the block

i’m digging it i’m loving being back on the hill i’m exploring i’m looking for my fruit and vegie stand i’m looking for my drug store i’m looking for my bank branch i’m looking for my hardware store you know

gots to line up my peeps

i’m looking for my dry cleaner my shirt dude and didn’t have to look far right there off of hyde bada bing i walk in and i’m smitten

i don’t know how edmund compares in price around here i mean i know it’s more than i used to pay when i was shacked up all the way out at the beach but that’s a whole n’other world out there

a person’s gotta be tough out there on the edge of the world

they still have

and use

outhouses out there in the outsidelands

but i found my man edmund and when i got lucky enough when serendipity blessed my soul and filled my pockets and i bought a little place a little ways down the hill on the lane i still manage to find the path back over to see edmund

got my routine

walk up the back side of macondray the little alley over to leavenworth stop to admire the view gotta be the best view from any alley in the city got my little spot where i can fire up

gaze upon alcatraz watch the sailboats watch the cruise liner come in watch the big freighters the biplanes pulling the big banners

i think today the banner reads

LA Sucks

but i could be wrong i might just be projecting

and the clouds go puff-la floating out above the bay jimbob he goes puff-la floating out above life

thinking deeply serious thoughts many possibilities and probabilities that haunt my soul that tickle my fancy that touch my tuchus reflecting still as i bounce on over and across to union down to see edmund i drop off my shirts explore unknown and mysterious stains with him

today i’m especially bummed my favorite white shirt softest cotton i’ve ever had brush my nipples issay miyake got it in tokyo and just the other day on the train don’t know what i was thinking probably i knew when i bought that cuppa that the chugga chugga shake rattle and roll was not conducive to

spotlessness

and edmund he examines the stain the splotch the splash and i’m publicly flogging myself with one of his wire clotheshangers and he calms me down and tells me it will be all right

and i take a breath and somehow i know he’s telling me the truth edmund he would not could not do otherwise

i mean

if i have to have a kidney removed i want edmund sitting there next to me patting my hand telling me it will be all right

and i drop off the rest of my shirts the leftovers from my last couple of trips tell edmund i’m hopping down the hill hit polk street run some errands my saturday afternoon errands i’ll be back to pick up my clean shirts on the way back home over to the other side of the hill

and i go explore the further santa monicazation of upper polk street all the hot young cuties bouncing down the sidewalk blondes and persians walking chihuahuas and pekingese on dainty leashes whilst they themselves are perched precariously perhaps delicately atop their saturday to be seen platform heels

it sho’ do make their ass wiggle das all i know

lovely lass sitting out front of the real food sitting on one wrought iron chair cute tanned legs propped up on another she is seriously furled brow reading a hardback book whilst making melanoma

tastes like chicken i hear

and strolling on past the yogurt shop and rice pudding shop and the fourteen coffee shops and a couple of tea shops maybe more properly shoppes do my thing walk into project juice

yeah i’m part of the problem

buy my sugar some cold pressed turmeric milk

head back up the hill not quite with the bounce down slide back into ray’s french cleaners there’s edmund he’s still got that grin i love that grin i don’t know how old edmund is he may be forty he may be eighty i don’t fucking know but the smile is ageless the smile is contagious

i ain’t ever walked out of there without a smile on my own leathery redneck puss heck i’d reckon on visiting edmund if i was a nudist and never ever wore clothes just to catch some of that smile just to grab hold of some of that grin

he say have a nice weekend mister joebob and all that