Response to Lizzie's poem

Old People on Benches

A haggard man drinks coffee on a bench
Wearing a Stop & Shop apron,
Smoking.

Across the center
A prim old lady
Positions her body away from him.
---------------------------------
Richard

Captain of the football team
Rugged, handsome
Straight A's

Voted most likely to succeed, and leave,
The Town's pride and joy
Oldest son


Sitting, 50 years later, on the same bench
where he heard of death's spite
stealing away his future.

Frozen in time, left to rot away years in an apron,
Smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee,
As he dreams.