sunday

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last night i stepped to my balcony to smoke a cigarrette. from a lower window in the block of the apartment building opposite where i stood, a dim light buzzed through the six inches of the window's shudder that had been left open. through the small space i could see the bare lower thighs, knees, and calves of a man sitting at the edge of a bed, adjacent to a night table on which sat the lamp which gave this scene it's color. the skin on the man's legs was chafed and red, toward reptilian, with some stringy white hairs. two hands on either side of his hips clutched the edge of the mattress he sat on. I witnessed him, tremoring, lean down below his left calf toward his left foot. his hands returned, unsteadily holding onto the ankle of the left foot, which was covered by a sock and a slipper. slowly and with great difficulty, he removed the slipper and sock from his foot and assisted it back to its position on the floor. He repeated the same with his right. Gripping the mattress again, the man propulsed himself to stand, when his legs trembling underneath him gave out. He fell back into his seat. Now, one at a time, he reached again toward either of his ankles, this time assisting them onto the bed with him as he scuttled backward, rotated himself ninety degrees, and began to recline. i could now see the greater part of his hips and torso, covered by a blue night gown. his same tremoring hand reached toward the night table and shut off the light. as i watched this, i took the last sip of my cup of coffee, the reheated last drops of a pot i had filtered the day before. the sip was more solid than liquid, and the silt of the espresso grounds slipped in between each of my teeth and the space between my inner lip and gums. i leave buenos aires in seven days.

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