friday night in ocala (a few hours late):

once again on the porch on friday night. pushed out by the heat still clinging around the windows blown down into the center of rooms by the fans. rain came in slowly at first i didn't notice until my thigh was wet from sitting near the edge. a broken gutter coughed a deluge on the front steps warning off visitors. not that there was anyone who might come visit in this weather. an SUV pulled into the parking lot next door and turned around another large truck drove slowly down the side street muffler not quite living up to it's name, no one to offer coffee to on this night. not that i'd made any. drinking brazillian beer which had been on sale at publix a few months ago. we had brought home four or five six-packs and this was one of the stragglers hidden in a bottom refriderator drawer. thank god at least it's cold. i'm still getting wet, but it's cold too and so i stay. a siren comes slowly towards me, then away, towards me, then away, the driver seems confused - suppose he's winding somewhere on the street grid taking turns and looking for a street number. i never see him drive by, but eventually the noise stops. can't hear the midnight rodeo tonight everything is muffled by the hard rain and there's no funeral at the funeral home. even the dead push off visiting hours to another sunnier evening.