Some man outside is yelling "motherfucker" a lot. Kinda miss that first month or so of quarantine when the city fell silent and all I could hear was birds, and all the extroverts were passed out drunk in their homes or too busy buying toilet paper to blow up my phone. Now I hear the hum of construction and buses and the crashes and booms of metal and sirens and the smell of asphalt in place of what was once fresh unpolluted ocean air.
Maybe one day I'll give up on the city and find a place in nature where I won't be incinerated in the hellfires of global warming. But I still love the fools here. I used to be so nomadic, never happy enough in one place to stay for long. But I must have found somewhere I'm content with enough to not have the motivation to move. My city checks most of my boxes. Most of my complaints are pandemic related, so that's everywhere. Besides, I'm pretty lucky to be in the place with the highest vaccination rate in the entire nation, apparently. That makes me so proud, and extremely grateful, to have already been here when pandemic struck. Very, very lucky. And wild untamed natural beauty is just a short drive away in any direction. I can't complain.
It's hot today. I love it. And even through the noisy sirens, I can still hear the birds, and can still feel summer. My kaftan falls over my shoulder and I feel like I'm in an old painting, half in modern times and half in another era when everything seemed romantic and beautiful and natural.
Horns honk outside but the birds aren't bothered. I live through the rumbles and screeches and escape into my own world.
This song from Les Miserables was randomly or not so randomly stuck in my head for nearly all of last year:
There is a castle on a cloud
I like to go there in my sleep
Aren't any floors for me to sweep
Not in my castle on a cloud
There is a lady all in white
Holds me and sings a lullaby
She's nice to see and she's soft to touch
She says Cosette I love you very much
I know a place where no ones lost
I know a place where no one cries
Crying at all is not allowed
Not in my castle on a cloud
I don't even hardly remember the book or the movie, but I remember this song. It's a vibe.
12:34 p.m. - 2021-06-16