looking in

we were sitting in the window of a top floor apartment in the 10th

we were watching the people, people must have been watching us

and then, from across the courtyard and three or four floors below...i saw something

something oddly timed and perfectly lit

just the light from the television at the end of the bed, a white and blue filmy light, like a Hopper painting

and then a woman, arms dangling at her sides, grey hair dangling on either side of her face.

she was dressed simply and timelessly:

a long grey skirt and a long navy cardigan over a white blouse and grey slippers

she shuffled from the doorway to the bed where she knelt and leaned forward like a teenager watching her favorite program

then, two minutes later, she rose again and left the room.

she must have done this ten times, all in a perfect and unnatural rhythmn.

and then we noticed that light was on in the next door window

a man sat naked on a bed, leaning slowly forward and backward, touching his toes

and then he began to dress, very very slowly, a perfect counterpoint to his neighbor and the two of them were playing together in harmony and totally unaware of one another

once his pajama bottoms were on, he pulled a sock from a drawer beneath the window

he stretched it carefully over his right foot and stood up and sat back down

the woman entered and exited the room again and again, back and forth

and the man pulled another sock from the drawer and put it on and stood and sat

and then he opened and shut the window three times, we were suddenly afraid he would look up

but he didn't

he twisted from side to side and touched the window lightly and sat back down to put on his night shirt

i wonder what my neighbors see...