Alley Cat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da6bBKLPEGg

One of my favorite things to do
is wander through the alleyways of this old town.
I take my camera with me
and try to capture all the things that people think they hide.
I can see their backyards,
and I feel like I'm spying on some private sector of their lives.
Sometimes I see things people never thought I would,
a shattered pot, in pieces by the road.
And old photo, one half burned away.
A rusty license plate from Missouri.
A flaking mural painted by grandma years ago on the garage door.
I especially like to do this when it is cloudy out,
then I can allow that melancholy feeling I get
wash over me
as I spy on the most forgotten aspects of our lives.