happy thanksgiving

I remember back in the day when I lived on Main street just off the Plaza in my very first apartment. There was this chick that I met thru work that I was digging a lot. She was shy and always seemed to have this wall up but whenever she saw me she’d walk up and lean against me or put her fingers thru my belt and hold on like I was her life preserver. At night before she went to bed she’d call me and ask me to talk to her till she feel asleep. She always said the sound of my voice put her at ease and made her feel safe, so I’d start talking about my day or whatever and I could hear her breath grow fainter and fainter until I knew it was ok to hang up the phone. And every so often I’d pick her up for a date at the house she shared in the hood with a bunch of thuggish brothers that she called family. I knew that we enjoyed each other and being young and foolish I thought she was the one. So with Thanksgiving coming up I invited her over for a home cooked dinner which was a huge deal for me with it being my first apartment and my first time cooking a turkey and all that good shit. I cleaned the place up and sat the table with a cloth and plates that I got from my mother who coached me thru the turkey cooking process over the phone. I put on soft music and turned the lights down low and lit the candles on the table just as she knocked on the door. Without a word she came in and walked stright into my bedroom and laid across the bed. “I’ve been pregnant all the time you’ve known me and I can’t see you anymore, and with that she got up and walked out the door. I let her go without a word because I couldn’t speak or think of anything to say. I just let her go. I closed the door and locked it, then went and blew the candles out. I must’a sat there for hours staring out the window as thousands of people streamed past my very first apartment on Main street just off the Plaza to watch the annual Thanksgiving lighting ceremony. I eventually got up and turned off the stereo and the lights and took all the food including my first and only home cooked turkey and put everything into the trash and went to bed.

"and the monkey flipped the switch"