When this is all over

Drum circle
Originally uploaded by mchughtie.

Am I going to remember old ladies blowing snot rockets into the bushes as I greet them in passing on the dirty road? What about little girls in frilly white dresses, proudly showing me the sheep guts they were given to play with after the slaughter? My neighbor antagonizing her pet monkey, and then letting it loose to terrorize small children? Teachers announcing things like, "that boy's a lunatic and that girl is dumb" when i walk in the classroom? Pickup lines such as "I love you boss lady. How is the beautiful day?" Baby boys with eyebrows drawn on them, a bucketfull of hairweaves sitting outside the shop, my colleagues slugging back water from old motor oil containers, piles of dried fish for sale, old men who can barely see sputtering through their two teeth that I am their wife, assuring me of their strength? Who knows, when this is done, if it won't have all seemed like some kind of alternate life, me cast in the wrong role, but loving it all the same.