Some guy pulls up to the curb on an electric scooter and asks me for a paper so he can roll a spliff. My guess is Russian.

Isaac you were right, for I cannot see anything behind his sunglasses. I had taken off my silent headphones to show attention and hear crickets cackling all eucalyptus in the empty lot adjacent.

Anyway, I oblige and he scoots off.

As the bus comes another man overarm throws his own cigarette into the road and readies to embark.

Once at the cafe I cut the hair of two of my coworkers. We collect the scraps and weave a blanket that now hangs in the second room with the co-working tables.

~~~

Some years after the permafrost was burned away by deity light I fell in love by the shore of Nueva Lixboa (crudely dubbed “O Lixo” due to excessive chemical runoff from the industrial air farms upstream).

This rather statuesque cat settled down next to me as I was spread under fullmoon (a redish lunar eclipse). All I could see at first was an undulating shape, but eventually caught glimpse of her coat of deep plum in the moonlight. She was drinking lemonade and asked me about my blanket that I lay upon. I said it was my grandmother’s, and the cat played it cool but I could tell she thought it sweet.

Read more on Substack, you coward (I love you)