We asked how he was doing as we walked by

He simply shut his trunk and said, “I’m still alive”

I giggled, my husband shrugged, James didn’t

James’s wife got out of the passenger seat

We turned the corner, saw the wreathe on the door

The colorful flags along their walkway

When in my backyard, behind theirs, I couldn’t believe what I heard James’s wife say

Insults and put-downs

Their house’s backdoor slammed as did the car trunk

James lit a cigarette

I watched him through the bushes, he then let out a deep breath

He squatted down and put his hands in the dirt

I could see that there was mud on his shirt

I turned away to go in my house

When I heard him call out

“Hey, take this, these came out nice”

He reached out his callused hands with clubbed fingernails

Told me, with a cigarette hanging from his mouth, “It’s another day in paradise”

He winked as our hands met through the bushes and over the fence

He handed me an apple

I heard a door slam as his woman yelled, “Damn! Damn you, James!”

He closed his eyes, there was no babble, he looked down like he accepted the blame

He disappeared into that house, didn’t even put his cigarette out ~

The next morning my neighbor asked if we’d heard what happened overnight

We said no

She told us there’d been a million red and blue lights

She’d peaked through the blinds

Said the EMTs couldn’t even get the stretcher inside

She saw that man lifted out

He was given chest compressions

There were no sirens

She said the police stayed back

There’d been no confession

No one had heard a scream

They said he passed in a dream ~

I thought back to what James had said yesterday, “I’m still alive”

And he had talked about paradise

Was it a malicious woman who took him out?

A synonym for heart disease

To be beaten daily by the one you married

I thought about his hands

He still planted trees and gardens

And he shared the fruit

There was that time he helped the old lady shovel her car out of snow

Did his family do something and get off with the loot?

Or did the cigarettes get him?

No, just yesterday he’d been livin’ ~

Less than 24 hours later I walked by his front yard

That apple tree is there along with the car he and his family shared

The trunk was propped open – I saw the soil bags and shovel, the fruit seeds

He’d always been so kind to share the fruit with me

By his car, some cigarette butts

I remembered his hands: all the cuts ~

The man had no autopsy

But I would bet the woman caused the heart disease

I hope he had peace

On the edge of his property are some apple seeds

It’s like he’s whispering, “I’m still alive” ~

I hear a door slam