Merry Christmas Everyone... Hope it's filled with hugs and plenty of surprises!

Scenes from my Real Life:

The streets are empty here off Memorial, the silver winter sun casting cold shadows down an abandoned film set where an inner city drama was just shot. Only the Citgo is open and there the clerk wears a Santa hat while shouting venomously in a foreign language into his cellphone. When he sees me he does a double take in that way you do when you just meet a man after thinking you're the last man on earth. He rings me up for some smokes and a pack of incense. He wishes me a 'Merry Christmas' and goes back to shouting in his native tongue. Outside I make my way down the hill usually occupied by various sex workers and winos when there is a loud shriek and behold... a hawk swoops down just above my head, arcs up and circles the deserted street below.

Transfixed I watch the gyre and majesty of its flight before it banks off to vanish into the trees.

It was one of the most perfect moments I've experienced in a long time and its vision still fresh across the eyes warms this solitary mood.