Encounter At Winn Dixie
Two of us on a bench
outside the store
I'm waiting
for a bus;
Enid's waiting
while her husband shops.
Forty years between us
Sharing butter cookies
because we both skipped breakfast
Enid lights up a cigarette.
She needs to know my name,
my son's name, where I'm from
originally
We talk about a recent hurricane
and that her husband brings her coffee in the mornings
"I'm 83 years old"
"Most women don't like to tell their age," she says
"But I'm proud I'm still going!"
The brace on her leg,
I find out,
is due to a stroke
at age fourteen;
a condition she was born with.
"I push myself" she tells me
"I drive the car;
my husband can't
because he has only one eye."
Walking is difficult;
communicating easy.
We carry on;
have a few more cookies
I head to the bus stop
while Enid waits for her husband.
We wish each other well.
Copyright © Karen Bressner | Year Posted 2006
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