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Suspicious Activity
Two men move in next door
They don’t meet my eye, don’t smile
In the afternoons they play an audio file
in a foreign language, loud angry voices of men
chanting in unison
The apartment building booms
floorboards vibrate
Placing a glass jar to the wall
I listen to their Skypes
Send more money . . .
We need more money . . .
I don’t understand the context
but it sounds dangerous
At my computer, I type up
a detailed description of my observations
naming the document “Unusual Suspicious Activity”
I add evidence to it every day
In the evenings, I go to the balcony
and take pictures of their lighted window
Ordinary life: cooking
typing on their laptops
Occasionally, they sit on the windowsill, smoking
casting large shadows over the trees below
When they move out after a few months
I feel lost, unoccupied
One day
I find an envelope in my mailbox
In the frame of a lighted window, a woman
cooking at a stove top, or else
staring into the garden
Here she’s undressing, here
with her phone, blue light
over her face
I examine the details: this sliver
of a new moon reflected in a windowpane, that
sparkle of ice in a glass
Back at my computer
I digitize the pictures, add them
to my files, then turn on the lights 
Alla Through the Looking Glass
Suspicious Activity