I was just stepping off the curb to cross a street on the way to
the post office this morning when I saw it…and came to an abrupt halt.
Transfixed, I watched for several minutes.
A
monster of metal, a modern-day T. Rex, grabbed a mouthful of the back end of the
88-year-old apartment building at 120 Tilton Avenue, chewed it up, swiveled to
its left, spat it out onto a growing pile of razed ruins, and then swiveled
back to take another bite. And another. And another. And yet another. As the
worn and dingy building disappeared bit by bit from the rear, door frames,
window panes, bathtubs, toilets, wooden chairs, slabs of stucco, and weathered
timbers rained down – twisted, broken, crumpled – onto the rubble pile. And,
bit by bit, green trees and blue sky came into view beyond.