Today: The Man Next Door... - To Fall Like A Drop Of Rain...

 There's A Piece Missing now... 

An ambulance rests next door...

Change hits hard,

Abruptly and unannounced...

Rippling outward...

I listen to music and fix my blog...

Today, minus 15

Tomorrow, they say Spring begins...

Although I don't remember ever even saying "good day" to the man who lived next door; because my kitchen window looks out over his pet store/dwelling, I frequently viewed him as he lived his life and ran his business....  I liked the simple genuineness I saw... In spite of it being a business as well as a home, what was done didn't seem to be done for show or to draw attention, but seemed to come instead from heart...  As a result his sudden death affected me deeply....  In response to this I wrote another more emotional poem....

Ode to the Man Next Door

From unseen realms

Change...

Heedlessly crashing, splashing,

Into earth born space...

Rippling in endless

Waves of shock...

Tearing, ripping, punching

Destroying what seemed to work...

Leaving

Gaping, empty, black holes,

Where life did pulse before...

Filling slowly...

With fresh, new colors...

All naught but pawns

In some unknown, larger game...

An Update:

In the early morning hours of June 19/2020 the whole building burnt to the ground.  It was a VERY large building so the fire was MASSIVE and I watched from my kitchen window only a few feet away...  It felt a VERY tiny bit safer after the fire department arrived...  but I  still felt very precariously positioned for several hours... I've included the written statement I gave the police below...

Shortly after 2:00AM I woke from a half asleep state to the sound of a small explosion and a flash of light. At first I thought distant thunder, but the sound and the light were simultaneous and the thunder wasn’t loud enough to be as close as that. Furthermore, there was no following “thunder”. The light was also orange and not white like lightening... Even half asleep I realized something wasn’t adding up. I got up and looked out the window. Clear skies, but crackling noises, like a camp fire and an orange glow... This seemed to originate from something on the north side of my building and my bedroom has only a west facing window, so I decided to go into the kitchen which has a north facing window to investigate further... I’d already made the adjustment from thunder and lightening to fire... but I was expecting something small... What greeted me was HUGE! The whole building across the road was on FIRE! It had clearly started at the back, but it had already almost completely consumed the back of the building and was rapidly moving to the front... I called 911 and reported it. I was asked if there was anyone in the building. It was possible, but the owners didn’t seem to be there often, so I didn’t know... It turned out there were no people, but thinking about it afterward I know nothing could have been done for anyone who might have been there in any case, because no-one could possibly have been there and still have been alive by the time I first saw the fire. It was already just too HUGE! I was told the fire department would be notified immediately, so I sat at my kitchen window, watching and waiting... Although it seemed like a long time before the fire department arrived. I think it was only about 10 or maybe 15 minutes, which was fast considering that I understand many of the firefighters are volunteers... I thought then that the noise I had heard was probably something caving in at the back of the building which had given the fire more air and more room. However, a police man later informed me that there had in fact been an explosion which send debris out 20 meters... So that was probably what I’d heard upon waking. I was terrified it would spread. Everything is VERY dry with the VERY hot weather and lack of rain and there were trees close. I was particularly concerned about two large pine trees close to the building. If they caught fire it could be VERY dangerous. My concern was quite justified...the needles on half of the pine tree closest to the fire are now scorched and brown and a couple of its branches have also been clearly burned. I was also concerned about my building. Although it is across a road there’s probably only about 80 feet separating the two buildings. I’m guessing the fire to have been about 100 feet high, maybe more and sparks were flying and it was HOT... However, thankfully there was little wind and the firefighters managed to keep the fire contained. Even the abandoned shed or barn at the back of the building looks to have been untouched by fire. I sat glued to my kitchen window straight through until a little after 7:00 AM. A backhoe was brought in for the final 1 to 2 hours that I watched. At first it worked only at the front of the building... but it later moved more to the back and did some work there too... Again I was concerned. As the fire had clearly started at the back, this was an area that needed to be left as untouched as possible, for the cause to be determined. Looking at the pile of charred rubble, determining a cause, seemed to my untrained eye, like it would be an impossible task, even if everything was left quite undisturbed...

 

I’ve felt a big connection to this building across the road, since I first moved into my current apartment at the beginning of November 2003. I’m almost always “at home” and mostly in the kitchen... so the kitchen window is the one I look out of most often. I don’t intentionally look out to keep track of anything or anyone, but I glance out frequently and I notice what is there... This building across the road was for sale when I arrived and I was told it had already been for sale for quite some time. While I’ve been here it has mostly been for sale and I was told it was uninhabitable from the beginning of 2006 until the “Pet Store people” bought it. I know they began working on it and moving in in the Spring and I think the year would have been about 2009, but I’m not really sure of the exact year now. I was relieved when they came. They re-shingled the roof and I watched as they fixed up the obvious things which needed repair or attention in and around the building. I watched them un-gird the large pine tree at the side, plant shrubs and flowers, bring in a fountain and put benches around; providing places where people could sit. They clearly looked after the building and the yard. The lawn was mowed and the shrubs and flowers watered regularly. It seemed like a good fit. The building seemed cared for and happy with its inhabitants and the “pet store people” seemed happy to be there too. Deliveries of stock came at regular times and I watched people come to buy food and supplies as well as pets. It never looked like a “booming” business, but there was a steady constant stream of people who came. I never knew the “pet store people’s” names and only remember speaking to them briefly on two occasions, but I enjoyed watching them live their lives and run their business... and was VERY happy for the building! However, after only about 1 ½ years the woman died and around 8:00 AM on the morning of Mar. 19, 2015 the man followed her and the building was again put up for sale... I know the current owners started moving in during the winter... I think it was at the end of 2016/beginning of 2017, but it might have been the following year... At first I thought it would be like it had been with the “pet store people”, as it seemed these people were also going to both live in and run a business from this building... but that never happened. A sign was installed which said they sold furniture and later hair dressing was added and when they first moved in, I saw many things being brought which I assumed were what they intended to sell. However, there was never any “grand” opening... Whatever “opening” they had I missed seeing completely. No-one seemed to come to buy and I didn’t see deliveries of “stock” either. The yard was left to look after itself and the owners were seldom in evidence... Unlike the “pet store people” I don’t know what they look like or what kind of car they drive nor much of anything else... The people who live beside me on Rue Principale told me they bought things there and she had her hair done there, so I’m sure there were some clients, but I didn’t see them, so there were never very many. It seemed to be a strange kind of business... so I wasn’t surprised when the building was again put up for sale about 1 ½ years after the “furniture store people” bought it... It was still for sale when it burned. I’m reminded of how often life takes us in unexpected directions and what we think will happen doesn’t or does but doesn’t suit... and that what does happen can look and/or feel quite “strange” which requires some adjustment...sometimes it’s A LOT of adjustment...

The residual feelings, I have now, as I look at the mass of charred rubble and huge crater that was once a building are very similar to the ones I had when the man died...  It feels to me like the building died of a broken heart after the loss of these "pet store" people...

This Post's Flavor(s): poetry, beginning/ending, human
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