the chalk mystery

chalk.

that was the name of my brother sam's imaginary friend when he was young. he used to talk to him, talk about him, and chill with him too. chalk always seemed like a cool dude and a good friend even if he was invisible to the rest of us.

one recent cold early december toronto morning i woke up and directly in front of my house was a chalk drawing. beautifully crafted, it said happy b'day guy with what appeared to be a steaming slice of pizza just beneath the words...

who, i wondered, was the birthday guy?

i couldn't help but think whether this was the work of the only other sam i've shared the same roof with for more than a year and that being my downstairs neighbor, sam. sometimes he calls me guy and i thought, well, it's december and my birthday is coming up and maybe he's the artist? i asked him if he had created this great work of sidewalk art and of course he said no and that in fact, he himself, had been wondering who had created this street graffiti chalk drawing directly at the foot of our stairs.

happy b'day guy and a slice of koronet's appearing out of the blue and even after a couple nice days of snowfall, it's still there on the sidewalk directly in front of my house.

sam and chalk and mom too, thanks for the early birthday wishes...

sam and the chalk drawing in little portugal, toronto, canada, december 2010.

love and health to all...