"dessert in the courtyard"

was, in actuality, an elderly couple with a packet of oreos, waiting for the harvest moon to rise. they had lived in west philadelphia during the truly bad times, the days of crack babies and drive-by shootings, moved to israel for a year, then center city during the 90s, and then back into UC after they retired. she audits a class at temple (greek and roman mythology), he likes fine dining, they both go for art house cinema and shakespeare in the park. it seems so odd that they would have chosen to retire on our block on spruce street, but perhaps i'm being altogether too cynical -- perhaps this is gentrification reified; maybe we truly are in the winter of university city's discontent. elderly people in the city always seem especially friable, and sitting with them in the gathering dark, i did find myself thinking that they should not really be out so late, that they should be indoors watching the history channel and sipping herbal tea. but no, i reimagined context, and suddenly it was the most natural thing in the world -- a cross-generational, cross-cultural encounter in the heart of a neighborhood in flux, our own small contribution to the re-imagination of a gentler university city, our prayer that the violence and misery, once so prevalent, will very soon be a thing of the past.