after working in hell and
anticipating for nothing to happen
at the local thrift store with my
family for an evening of shopping
for wedding apparel and
accessories for our joyous
and momentous occasion.
excursions through the land
of your neighbors throwaways.
my son finds Mexican pants,
my soon to be finds an ice cream
cone dotted shirt,
my daughter finds Halloween trinkets
and I searched for cheap books,
electronics, furniture, and jean jackets.
all of which have nothing to do with
what we originally ventured out for.
my soon to be finds a top hat for me
to wear to the wedding and I try it on
and check myself out in the mirror
with satisfaction but out of the blue,
a garrulous wrinkled old man,
raises his thunderous voice,
startling my entire world and
completely catching me off guard.
telling me I looked good in the hat
but suggesting that I wear a brown
top hat instead, that he found in the neighboring aisle. brown not being
my color, I politely decline his
suggestion and he walks off down
another aisle looking for his wife
with a cart full of antiquated artifacts screaming,
DEBRA! DEBRA!
our natural instincts are to join him
so then, we started screaming,
DEBRA! DEBRA!
we laugh a little bit during a few
moments of silence and we hear it again...
DEBRA! DEBRA!
the jocularity of our idiosyncrasies
were to continue screaming and laughing.
more and more voices joined in and
started yelling back...
DEBRA! DEBRA!
before we knew it
the whole store in every department
was calling out the name...
DEBRA! DEBRA!
the air was drunk with
laughter and magic.
I hope he found his wife.
as long as that old man is alive,
something is happening.
I will never forget him
even if he has already
forgotten about me.