The Word-a-day Writing Challenge

Day Twenty: Simmer

On the Downtown East Side for a Research Project with Mike D:

the first thing I notice is

sirens

late afternoon sun warm on my legs as it breaks over a jagged shore of glass and concrete. a pattison billboard advertising 3.5% interest rates on home equity lines of credit from the royal bank. the wincing. the stares. who we are, what are we doing here. another project? another reporter/filmmaker/documentarian? another outsider looking in, looking for—       what? everybody wants something. down here. quick-paced shuffle/stagger/strut, hand/head/torso wobble, with conversation thrown like punches: I'll get you back tomorrow with juice. yeah that's what he said man that's what he said. seething, steaming simmer of traffic. aggressive horns, hiss and whine of busses. across the street: pho, pharmacy, and the united church—close to amenities. the parking lot view from our room at the patricia hotel: a man in a track suit jumping out of a dumpster with a decal that reads: enjoy denial and behind it a banksy-style image of a kid with a paint can spraying:

everything is ok

  ok

      ok

          ok

always the heavy breath of traffic                                always the clammer of voices, shouting,         and the invasive needs of seagulls, demanding, posturing                                               everybody wants something
we take our chances, she said, cast in amber streetlight, money in hand, eyes darting. ...I have to go now.

we take our

chances

       we all do 

3.5%                    equity

            home
for sale on the corner of carol:
Weed! Rocks! H! vitamins, a vacuum, a vcr, dvds, canned cat                                                          food, baby clothes, toothbrushes, hand soap, rubber boots,                                                       whores, and hoodies, all laid out on blankets by the curb. we take                                                              our—

 patio tables in gastown looking up at a big screen

           beach volley ball match, more tits and ass than 

you'd ever find on hastings. nonchalant yawn, 

             I'm sooooo starving! All I had to eat today was 

a smoothie. —ugh. god. I know, right? summer.  I just can't eat 

in this heeeeat.

     we take our            3.5%

we take our             busses            we take our      denial

our vitamins     our rocks in hand 

 we take our        parking lot view        we take our

pho.   our banksy.    our steady breath of

demure disapproval—

ugh. god.
I just can't...