Dear Old Man Crossing the Street....

Dear Old man crossing the street,

Old man crossing the street. I’m stopping my car… not even taking another beat. I see your feet; hit the pavement like Godzilla in Tokyo. I think that I could, but I decide I won’t go.

With your sock pulled up high, your veiny legs you still can not hide. Your back hunched over like Quasimodo in Norte Dame, your walker keeps you up like life support, tennis balls at the bottom- dogs think it’s a game.

Don’t worry old man, take your time. I know what it’s like, I understand your pain. I’ll be patient as you cross the street to the one of another name.

As your orthopedics shuffle before lamely, that’s when it hits me- and your life flashes before me.

Were you young once old man? Quick and nimble, dancing like Gene Kelly? Throwing ladies high in the sky as you jittered and jived?

Or were you the shy guy who dreamed of sending man to the moon? The one who invented rockets and space food. and then got laid off at IBM when younger generations swooped in and flashed their pearly gems.

Did you have a great love, the kind people see in movies? shared your first dance and hot summers at the pool? Then marriage right after high school?

Or are you bitter and sad because no one ever loved this lad?

I bet your didn’t think your life would end up like this, so lonely and sad before death’s sweet kiss. I sigh as I hold back a few tears, what will become of my next few years?

I release the brake determined to move forward and onward, to life my life to the fullest in the name of that old man. Yes, that's what I'll do, I won't let you down.

I hear and thump and bump and I look in my rear view mirror. The man’s on the ground,.. Wow, this wasn’t his year, and I drive on as I shed one last tear.