Suck My Toes

All day and all night I hear a persistent, melodic cry from some point in the distance. The first few days I wasn’t sure if it was even human. While visiting my friend Robin and his girlfriend, I learned that it’s apparently some dude peddling rice cakes. His catchphrase, by the time it reaches our ears, sounds something akin to the title of this entry and he, in my mind at least, has become legend. Window closed or open, rain or shine, “SUCK MY TOOOOOOESSSS!”. It’s maddening. I’ve plotted ways to silence this man forever. Last night while eating at an outdoor table, Robin taps me and says, “There he is!”. I’m not sure if I want to put a face with my tormenter, but I strain my eyes and finally I see him…no longer disembodied from that piercing wail. I’m smiling…he’s magnificent. Stocky, robed, with a creaseless face despite his age and a shiny bald head, as though one of the Drapung Loseling monks had wandered here from India. Leisurely swaggering along the pathway lined with dining Ilsaners, beaming a beatific smile right back at me and then launching into another whooping SUCK MY TOES.