D.O.P.-T.

Autumnal. When I got home last night, the furnace was roaring. As we left for the weekly supermarket run this morning, the guy was setting up his yard full of Hallowe'en inflatables. Dead leaves are starting to skitter in the streets, and in a quiet moment after midnight, I heard the rats chewing on the inside of the wall between the store and the liquor store (I banged on the wall with the duster handle and scared em off). For the first time this year I put on my big purple hoodie as I waited for the bus after work. On the next block, a figure also swathed in a dark hoodie stood motionless in the gutter.