YESTERDAY SHOULD BE REPEATED

The old man with a cheat sheet for filling out forms (age, address, date of birth). The middle-aged impatient woman (medical tests just take up so much precious time!). The baffled fellow who didn't know why he OR his daughter were there. A sweet old lady. And two middle-aged Caucasian dudes. I still don't know why the other one was there, he was still waiting when my procedures were done.

Having arrived twenty minutes early, I was there for a good long while in between, but still got out well before lunch. So I wandered around -- scoped out the dim sum restaurant where I had originally planned to eat, they were booming, went to Walgreens to have my transit card upped -- before finally deciding on a bánh mì (燒豬肉麵包 'siu chyu yiuk min baau') and cà phê sữa (越南咖啡無多冰 'yuet naam gaa fei mou do bing').


There were two pipes and tobacco in my coat pocket. One briar was an elegant little number my grandmother had given my dad when he returned from the war, so it was considerably older than myself. The other pipe was a squatty thing I had acquired 15 years ago. The first for after lunch.
The second for after tea.

Purchased a fun reference book in between.

Coldish, but sunny, a slight breeze. Stockton Street bustling, the alleyways quiet and windless. Outside mr. Wong's shop I listened to the sixties music he had on. There were only a few tourists, or people of any type. Too early for grandparents to pick up their kids.


I just realized that from the hospital, to Walgreens, to the Vietnamese place, the bookstore, and even at the bakery where I went for milk tea and a pastry, every person I dealt with was female. That doesn't usually happen.

Stimulating beverages. Textural things. Savoury or flaky edibles. New book. Smoke. Touchy-feelies (two pipes, both sandblasted). Aged Virginia leaf and memories of my father. Sunlight recalled from long ago, and in real world time. People I remembered, and people in the present.
Yesterday should always be repeated.


Slanting silver rays, black holes in the shadows.
The way the pipe was held in his mouth.




==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================