Borders

I thought maybe I should bring flowers, cliché as they might be.

Of all the reasons that there would be a line of cars up

and down this street, I didn’t think funeral.

There are neighbors. There are people you know.

Then, there is everything else. I don’t know most of the people

who live closest to me. But they know when we get

groceries and how many bags we carry in, and which

family members always help. They know about the

hole in the roof and anxiously watched us patched it

hoped we didn’t fall, and observed from their house through

a tiny slit in the curtain. There was the time I saw

a neighbor naked in her window. I happened to leave

my house the same time the light in her bedroom

revealed her pale skin and pubic hair.

When the neighbors leave for vacation or too

long I question if they’ll ever return. One morning

there was ambulance outside. We sat by the window assumed

everything / prayed it wasn’t the worst.

For certain neighbors, we save their dogs