sea
at the parade her heart was so full of joy she thought it would burst. she was dancing and drifting on a tide of love. the feathers on her headdress quivered and every last sequin on her costume shimmered with her every shake and shimmy down the boulevard awash with light from the late afternoon sun. the smell of jerk prowled thick in the air before sidling up and caressing her tummy fondling her appetite. out in the middle of the broad avenue past the troupes of hundreds of dancers swaying to the hypnotic rhythms pounding from convoys of rolling sound-systems she spots the smoking from beyond the crowd-control barriers. she had no line of sight to the source of it but her eyes land on a man among the masses on the sidewalk as he sinks his teeth into a tender still-hot juicy chicken thigh. he was loving it. lord knows he hadn't had something this delicious for a while now. damn this here is naaice! just the other day he had some chicken with some rice and beans but it was dry as old boots. he could see it coming looking back. the lady who served him did not even lay eyes on him much less utter a single word to him. her mind was someplace else. she had been woken too early for her shift by a call from the principal's office. jr had been making trouble in school again. he had been fighting and had beat up another boy. but what choice did he have he asked. they were making fun of him. of her. he was laughing that she was working at that chicken shack out on third. so he hit him. and the more ty thought about it the madder he got. it ain’t right, son. disrespecting me like that. and where is everyone? oh yea. imani and nia be at the parade. dancing for the y. that motherfucker’s gonna be there too. he’s gonna get what’s coming to him. he takes the piece out from behind the flat-screen. he bumps into mr watts on the stoop on the way out. mr watts grunts and gives him the side eye. those boys are trouble. he gotta get that eddie to come fix that lock out back. somebody's been thievin’. where's eddie at? eddie was busy avoiding old man watts. that guy's real cheap. he hadn't even paid me for the faucet in 3c i fixed three months ago. i ain't doin’ nothin’ for him no more. i don't even wanna see his stingy-ass face. so eddie takes the long way round the block to get to ali's at the corner for his coffee and lotto. he just about walks smack into the opening glass door. so sorry the two japanese ladies say stepping out onto the street. they bow to show they’re sorry. so sorry so sorry they turn in their little skirts and long socks and patter off stopping on the corner to google map before making their way towards the sound of drums. it was their first time in new york. it was so exciting. so cool. it was like they were in a movie. past lincoln the block opens up and the parade comes into view. it was in full swing. fish was frying, corn and jerk were being smoked in oil barrel halves up and down the walkways and service roads running along the parkway. men draped in flags of all colours, dripping with sweat, sisters sultry in home-bedazzled underwear, hawkers of cold water! cold water! ice-cold water! gangs of kids horsing, families in beach chairs squinting from the sun in their eyes hopeful for familiar faces in the passing contingents of dancers and marchers, tourists taking selfies, frazzled grandmothers hollering after run away children, cheeks daubed with cotton candy and ice-cream, cops of all shapes and sizes idling at periodic posts, arms crossed, thumbs tucked in belts.
from her vantage point in the middle of it all she surveys the joyous multitudes in their wondrous garbs, a lucent wave expressing itself freely in boundless cascading vibrations, the thoughts, hopes and energy of the people - a sea of love - coursing down the wide avenue - buoyed and roused on both sides by shiny banks of free and unbridled humanity - where for a brief moment she thinks, this is how being human and being alive should feel - straight and true - as the nine millimetre that strayed to rest with her bursting heart.
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