terminus

his father died when he was young &

when it happened,

the school closed for the day

so that the faculty &

the children could attend,

if they so desired---

the town was much smaller then.

 

a classmate of his

being young, naïve &

flippant with her tongue,

remarked that she wished someone’s dad

would die

everyday,

so that school might be closed again.

 

though they were just kids,

he remembered that she had said it---

he remembered & it scarred,

so he kept it in a little place

deep inside.

 

she “took to drink”

would be the delicate way of putting it,

in her late teens &

it never really stopped---

life had been cruel to her

as she tried to make her way through &

no one would stick by her long

because she just wasn’t

sustainable.

 

when he turned 70,

he stopped in at the local pub for happy hour,

and as the stories of the weekend were being

tossed around,

so was the story of this woman

who had gone to her mailbox at the end of her

driveway,

then she slipped,

then she fell &

after hitting her head she laid there

alone,

and she froze to death in the winter cold.

 

when he heard that she had died,

not to mention,

that her life had been one of a lonely

alcoholic,

he thought back as far as he could,

trying to remember the nature of the girl

when they were both young---

he wondered just how much had been going on

at home,

just how much happened during that miserable life

that led to a frozen death,

alone at the end of a driveway,

but he couldn’t shake it,

for there was a release---

even though the years had dulled his contempt for

her, it all seemed to dissipate &

flush right out through the cracks in all the windows

of the pub, right then & there,

for that specific story had ended

& there was nothing else to be said.