owls

i glanced to my right at the man sitting on the sidewalk outside the scaffolding across the street from that friendly number two house. we had an uninteresting conversation in my head:

girl: "what's this building going to be?"

man: "nothing, we just needed something to do."

girl: "i've been up there you know. i like that you guys leave the lights on at nite."

man: "you probably shouldn't tell me that, but what did you find up there?

girl: "nothing. ...everything."

the man put out his cigarette on the sole of his mud-crusted boot and looked me right in the eye. i realized that i'd stopped walking and just had been staring at him during our imaginary conversation. i waved.

he tossed his butt to the street. i kept walking.