Neighbor Note

Neighbor Note

I wonder if they see me

Through the sheer curtains and the screen door

If they see it when my mom and I dance around the kitchen

Splinters pricking our bare feet

Flour in our hair

I wonder if they hear me

Through cracks in the walls and holes in the floor

If they hear it when we scream to a song we like

If they hear it when we laugh hard

Or cry hard

Or have a hard day

Waxing and waning it feels like the house moves with the wind

I wonder if they feel it moving too

If they feel the vibrations of our feet on the old hardwoods

When we jump do they jump?

When we run, do they?

I wonder if they smell us

The sticky sweet scent of my mom’s perfumes

The burning of rubber every time the vacuum breaks

If they can tell what we are making for dinner

If they ever wished we would share

Sometimes I wish they could never

See or

Hear or

Feel or

Smell 

I wish they wouldn’t

I shut the blinds close the windows and the doors

And hold myself and my family and my house close

And breathe in our perfect isolation

Then I wonder if they saw the shut blinds and closed windows and doors

I wonder if they are thinking of me

I wonder if they know I see them too

Hear it when their kids cry or when they fight

Feel it when their house shakes 

Smell it when they use their grill

Polite hellos and goodbyes are all we share

But they have seen behind closed doors

We know the truth about each other

And that makes us frightened

I’m not afraid of them 

Just of what they might have seen

Is this the price to pay when living in a city?

Never alone, always someone to lean on

But also never alone, always perceived

I wonder if they know I see them just as they see me.