Welcome to The Village south of the Bronx border.
The new landlords, members of The Hasidim, after much
banging on our door finally broke me when they offered a first floor renovated
apartment on the other side of the building where they had succeeded on
concentrating a majority of long time tenants in The South Bronx of America.
The rest of the building was for homeless families.
Poor and unemployed people were taken out of shelters thanks
to the kindness of taxpayers paying $2,800 monthly per family unit. The windows lit with Christmas lights became
brighter as the courtyard became alive with the laugher of African-American and
Hispanic children playing in the snowstorm.
New York City, you are awesome.
As I type, I got you under my skin, Old Eyes Blue sings from
my Win98 Media Player
Hasidim shook hands after promising me a lease, a new stove
and new refrigerator.
After I was given the keys to the mailbox of the apartment,
it was off to the post office for a change of address. Finally we can get
regular mail service instead of waiting for the female Puerto Rican letter
carrier with the dragon tattoos on her legs.
A short heavyset Mexican woman in the building politely
asked me if I had moved into the apartment yet. Not until they deliver the
lease, the stove and fridge, I said with the upbeat smile of a hopeless
romantic like Paul Newman in Fort Apache, The Bronx.
One day, I went to get my mail and was confused when the key
wouldn’t go into the lock. I went upstairs to the apartment and knocked on the
door. The Mexican woman said the apartment was now theirs. The Mexicans got the
lease and the stove and the refrigerator.
Do you have my mail?
She closed the door.
Old Blue Eyes is now singing South of The Border at random
from my Frankie Files.
The next time The Hasidim knocked on the door, they saw me
dressed like them. (I couldn’t find a yarmulke so I wore a black baseball hat
backwards.)
What came out of my mouth was sound and fury signifying
Oscar Night.
Life sucks wonderfully.
And now The End is near, croons The Chairman of The Bronx
Love you madly, Planet Earth.
Bye.
