I Would Live Here
Sometimes the best way to get to know a particular place is to walk the alleys. On this particular day, I had gone out for an aimless stroll. After having just moved to Richmond a couple months ago, I was still very unfamiliar with everything.
I saw a lot of what used to be. A giant stump of a tree that once provided shade for the home next to it, tire tracks in the mud of a parking lot left from when someone went out for their day, a weathered Thomas the Tank Engine toy train from someone’s long past childhood, and an empty brick structure that may have once housed a small studio apartment.
The alleys are an escape from the busy traffic of the streets. I saw an old man walking a dog, children’s toys left out in a grassy area, and a rusted chair set underneath a small tree.
How many times does that old man walk that dog, down this alley, and how many other dogs has he had before this one? How many different alleys?
Who last played with that toy?
Who sat in that chair, placed under a tree to provide shade on a hot summer day?
