Oblivious to any inhospitable messages

at a grocery store
with a female friend
which morphs between
several different women
as if we had been traveling
stopping to get supplies
buying a ton of food
I kept getting different foods
to surprise her
at the checkout
complicated lines
and long waits
found a free cashier
he seems unbalanced
but conspiratorial
takes the hot sauce
and places it in a large glass bowl
that had a used red candle
in the bottom half
I was concerned the hot sauce
would smell like
the fragrance from the candle
but he acted as if
they did this all of time
I also remembered to get
cigarettes for the woman
seemed important
perhaps the entire reason
we were at the store
walking to the place
we were staying
which was the house
of a guy I know
JM from Bellingham
and his girlfriend
it is dark and raining
the woman I am with
runs on ahead to get dinner ready
I then meet a man
who has a living yellow leopard
made out of a type of wax
he asks me if
I think the leopard
is ripe enough to eat
I touch it
and it is like a melon
the skin on one of its legs is split
and I tell him
I think its ready
JM from Bellingham
is there now
we head back to his house
it is clear he forgot
he had offered us a place to stay
and was bummed
that we were now
going to be at house
we stop on the corner
in front of his place
there is a lot of traffic
the rain is steadily falling
and it is cold
on the concrete
in front of his place
are tiny yellow creatures
similar to the yellow leopard
they all seem miserable
in the way that animals do
to be out in the weather
huddled together shivering
there are three types
of these creatures
one the unrolls itself
like a flattened hose
another like tiny cartoon dinosaurs
and one like an Escher chameleon
they are all a waxy yellow
with spherical black eyes
the people in the cars
drive by in amazement
there is no cage or barrier
but they remain confined
to the concrete space
JM and I are waiting before going in
I am concerned one of them
may try to bite me
then the woman runs out of the house
through the animals to us
and grabs the hot sauce candle bowl
and runs back in
I follow
JM's girlfriend is a room
adjacent to the kitchen
watching TV
but with a blanket
that has been tacked up over the door
so she doesn't have to see us
again I sense we are unwelcome
the woman is preparing
a huge dinner for all of us
oblivious to any inhospitable messages