Smells like flowers

It is strange what happens when it is summer in San Francisco. The smells change. Many of the downtown streets, which normally smell of pee, now smell of sewers. And some of the Chinatown alleys smell of incense and garbage.
The further down hill, the worse the smell. Horrible.

There is an alley near my house that smells of moss and sweet flowers, because it is overgrown and too far uphill for the street people (we mustn't call them bums!) to come. And the beer-drinkers haven't discovered it either. It is very nice in the morning when the sun comes out, which is around ten or ten thirty, after the fog.

I do not want to go in there any other time, only when it is bright. It is scary at other times. Sometimes somebody is sleeping under the bushes there. But you can't smell him if you don't come too close. I think he probably has somewhere to shower. He must like the flowers, I hope.


周小燕