there was a boy
who got all he ever wanted
one day,
all of a sudden,
out of
nowhere
and then he sat there
with his car
and his house
and his job
and his wife
and he thought:
now what?
and his wife told him
to have kids
and so they did
but when the kids
were born and
grown and
gone
he turned to his wife again
and said:
now what?
and his wife told him
to retire and move to florida
so he retired after
thirty-five years at his company
and moved to a shack
across the street from the beach
(because he couldn’t afford
a house on the beach)
and as he sat one night
looking out at the sun setting
he would turn, again,
to his wife and ask:
now what?
and she told him
to just enjoy all that he had
all that he had done
to look back on his life
and smile
and so he
did
but before bed that night
he turned to his wife
and asked her with all
earnest:
now what?
and she told him
to go to bed
because that’s all there
is to do right
now
and that stuck with him
it was all he could think about
he stayed up thinking about it
all night in fact
and when his wife woke up
she found him out on the front porch
sitting in a plastic chair
watching the sun
come up
she didn’t think anything of it
and didn’t say anything about it
but something had changed in him
something that took him three weeks
to figure out
because that is when
he turned to his wife
one last time
and asked:
now what?
and she told him to answer
his own **** question
for once
this shocked him
and made him angry
so he barked back
that she’d always
had an answer before
where were they now?
where were all those things
to be doing now?
she didn’t know
and his yelling brought tears
to her eyes so he left the house
and she sat their crying
for a bit until
she could pick herself up
and go work on her knitting
until he returned
the boy drove through the sea-side town at twilight
and he could look into the bars and see
dozens of young people drunker than sailors
singing songs completely off key
and genially enjoying whatever
they were doing right then
the boy then drove to the pier
and parked his car *******
across three spots
and got out and walked
across the rickety planks
to the end of that bridge
to nowhere
there he looked out towards the darkened sea
and he could see nothing
not a ship
or a lighthouse
not a buoy
or a feature in the
sky
and there he stayed until the dawn
enveloped him and other souls
began to inhabit the pier
he returned to his car
pulled it out from across three parking spots
drove it out of the parking lot
away from the town
and out towards his shack
across from the ocean
once home
his wife came to him
saying she was worried sick
saying she could barely sleep
saying where were you?
oh god, where were
you?
nowhere
he said
I was nowhere
and for the first time
I finally felt like there wasn’t anywhere else
to go
what do you mean by that?
his wife questioned
I don’t know
he responded
I really don’t
know
Dec 13, 2012
Dec 13, 2012 at 4:03 AM UTC
there was a boy
who got all he ever wanted
one day,
all of a sudden,
out of
nowhere
and then he sat there
with his car
and his house
and his job
and his wife
and he thought:
now what?
and his wife told him
to have kids
and so they did
but when the kids
were born and
grown and
gone
he turned to his wife again
and said:
now what?
and his wife told him
to retire and move to florida
so he retired after
thirty-five years at his company
and moved to a shack
across the street from the beach
(because he couldn’t afford
a house on the beach)
and as he sat one night
looking out at the sun setting
he would turn, again,
to his wife and ask:
now what?
and she told him
to just enjoy all that he had
all that he had done
to look back on his life
and smile
and so he
did
but before bed that night
he turned to his wife
and asked her with all
earnest:
now what?
and she told him
to go to bed
because that’s all there
is to do right
now
and that stuck with him
it was all he could think about
he stayed up thinking about it
all night in fact
and when his wife woke up
she found him out on the front porch
sitting in a plastic chair
watching the sun
come up
she didn’t think anything of it
and didn’t say anything about it
but something had changed in him
something that took him three weeks
to figure out
because that is when
he turned to his wife
one last time
and asked:
now what?
and she told him to answer
his own **** question
for once
this shocked him
and made him angry
so he barked back
that she’d always
had an answer before
where were they now?
where were all those things
to be doing now?
she didn’t know
and his yelling brought tears
to her eyes so he left the house
and she sat their crying
for a bit until
she could pick herself up
and go work on her knitting
until he returned
the boy drove through the sea-side town at twilight
and he could look into the bars and see
dozens of young people drunker than sailors
singing songs completely off key
and genially enjoying whatever
they were doing right then
the boy then drove to the pier
and parked his car *******
across three spots
and got out and walked
across the rickety planks
to the end of that bridge
to nowhere
there he looked out towards the darkened sea
and he could see nothing
not a ship
or a lighthouse
not a buoy
or a feature in the
sky
and there he stayed until the dawn
enveloped him and other souls
began to inhabit the pier
he returned to his car
pulled it out from across three parking spots
drove it out of the parking lot
away from the town
and out towards his shack
across from the ocean
once home
his wife came to him
saying she was worried sick
saying she could barely sleep
saying where were you?
oh god, where were
you?
nowhere
he said
I was nowhere
and for the first time
I finally felt like there wasn’t anywhere else
to go
what do you mean by that?
his wife questioned
I don’t know
he responded
I really don’t
know
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