There’s this lady
Old
80 years old or so
She sits on the bench in my front yard
She’s been doing this
apparently
for years
So today while out barbecuing with the girls
the old lady shows up
sits on the same bench
she’s been sitting on for years
Fuck this- I thought
I’m kickin’ the old bitch out
I don’t care
You wanna sit your sit go sit it
at the goddamn watering hole down the block
So I told ‘em allllllll
I’m kickin’ her ass out!
And my roommate’s pretty blonde alkie cigarette puffin’ porn watchin’
friend
leaps up and tells me
honestly
"Matt, no. You don’t know what it’s like to be 80 years old! Don’t do it."
I gave that some thought
then said ‘Fuck that. The old bitch is out’
and when I went up there and saw that old gal I stopped
looked at her-
really looked at her
and all I could mutter was
‘hi’
and when I said hi she smiled and she said hi
right
back
Then I sat on the porch
and she sat on the bench
and we both looked out at the boulevard
admiring humanity and weather and warmth
Then I got to thinking
No
I don’t know what it’s like to be 80 years old

So I started making assumptions
and generalizations
about this old lady
Probably an 80-something-year-old-widow
2 kids who live 700 miles away
Rarely sees them
or speaks with them
on the phone
Finds solace from loneliness
somehow
in sitting on that fucking bench
Then I thought more
No
I don’t know what it’s like to be 80
But
I do know sad
and I do know desperate
and I do know pain
and I do know alone
and
I have honest-to-god-fucking-christ-knife-aimed-at-eye
begged
With that
I let the old woman be
and we-together- stared off into a perfect Chicago sunset