The World: Even if previously careless, when one later stops being careless, such a person illuminates the world, like the moon breaking away from a cloud.
Dhammapada 13.172
The demolition of the Baldoni house began today. At seven in the morning, the crew arrived. First, they cut down the two pines that flanked the front door. The air smelled of them all morning, better than the candle by the bed I burn these cool nights. More trees followed.
The front door removed and, sledgehammers in hand, three men entered to battle plaster, wood, and metal.
Dhammapada 13.172
The demolition of the Baldoni house began today. At seven in the morning, the crew arrived. First, they cut down the two pines that flanked the front door. The air smelled of them all morning, better than the candle by the bed I burn these cool nights. More trees followed.
The front door removed and, sledgehammers in hand, three men entered to battle plaster, wood, and metal.
Grim work, killing a house.
Later, after workers left for the day, I thought back on those who had lived in that old, honest house. First I recalled an aging Italian immigrant, landlord to a young couple. Childless, he left the house to them in his will. That couple, the Baldonis, came from a family of local accordion makers. They raised children in that house, planted fine old red roses, and the twin front pines. Landlords then themselves, they let to a Vietnam vet, an amateur actor. Upstairs lived an assistant soccer coach and his lonely girlfriend, who departed separately. Then followed a long and blurry succession of engineering students, recent graduates, and office workers. Sold to its present owner, a bank, the house was vacant for a few years.
An old brick place I have called neighbor since moving here blinks once, twice.
Its doorless front entry now gapes, wide and toothless. Windows have been wrenched out for resale or refuse. I am watching its decomposition over days.
It's a noisy process, this blinding, muting, gutting of the domestic. Brought down, every little bit of it left in the ground will soon to be buried under a bank.
It's a noisy process, this blinding, muting, gutting of the domestic. Brought down, every little bit of it left in the ground will soon to be buried under a bank.
