The Unknown Sound

Posted on February 9, 2004 in Journals & Notebooks Neighborhood

From my journal:

A chain saw groaned and whined as men whine with their mouths closed. A swishing broom joined it. A dog shouted the alarm against the overrun of cacophany. When these noises abated for a few moments, I could hear the click of a truck cooling down. And, over that and the voices of the Mexican gardeners, a sound I could not identify, a clap and a lip-smack of something, a crossing of one flatness with another. Not the clean bite of pruning shears, but a shuffling, smooth tearing and a sloughing off. What percussion was this?

When I finished writing and went to my window to check, the source had moved down the street.