Neighbors

Now neighbors.
They's funny folk.
Ain't family....Ain't friends.
It' a forced acquaintanceship.
And watch out... if you ain't too busy,
Ya'll end up knowin' more about them than you do
'Bout your own self.

There this one woman in number 35.
She just takin' up space---three bedroom apartment.
Goin' wastin'.
She ninety something.
So old, even her grandkids dead.
'Bout time she died herself.

She always peekin' out her curtains.
Ya'll can see the curtains is movin'
If ya'll look close enough.
They ain't movin' by themselves.....it ain't no ghost.
Why peek?
Why don't you just take down them curtains,
Open up them windows real wide
Get yourself some fresh air
And binoculars.
We all knows yous lookin' at us.
Don't you got no tv?
But Hell.
It a free world.
It free to look...dependin' on what yous is lookin'at.

I'm wonderin' myself what ya'll be doin' in there sometimes.
With yo biscuits and yo cup o tea.
It just one big biscuit hour for you ain't it.
Why don't you dye your hair or something?
Get yourself some cats to feed.
Or get on one of them buses with the old people.
Go visit the zoo.
Take up bingo
And win yourself a tv.

And the woman downstairs.
She out of some scary movie.
She got hair all long and greasy.
Teeth the color of sunshine.
She all shiny in the wrong places.

She open the door to me one time.....
Whew....
Ya'll gotta prepare your nostrils 'fore you ring her bell.
The stench of it...done burned my insides.
I reckon she breeding all kind of maggots down there
Send 'em up the plumbin' pipes my way when she bored.

She always bangin' on the ceiling
Even I drops a spoon on my kitchen floor.
One time....I banged her back with my fryin' pan.
Damn broke the handle. Had to get another one.
See, she costin' me now.

But I don't say nothin' no more.
She tell me she gonna die soon.
She all diabetic, eplileptic.....
Too sick to sneeze.
All this time,
I thought that noise down there were booty bashin'?
Turn out it were her havin' seizures.
Well I say seize the day.
Bring on the disease.


(Spoken Time 2:16)