Big red flowers splashed like a painting on black capris

White buttoned blouse, crisp and clean.

Thin short hair, bottled dirty blonde,

With pleading eyes, in silence, her life did she convey

That moment in the grocery as she turned and looked my way.

 

My heart melted in sudden compassion,

Tears welled up in my eyes.

Something strangely familiar—fleeting feelings fluttered by.

Her humanity flowed out of her, vulnerable and yearning-

Within my inner being affinity was stirring

 

I thought of her at home alone, pouring coffee or tea,

In kitchen bright with yellow curtains, waiting for such as me.

We would talk of youthful follies, 

Fling doors open long closed in secret shame,

No shock or impending judgment, no failures, and no blame.

 

We would laugh at things we construed as true

When naïve hopes were a tangle

Of who we were, of what should be…lies from every angle.

If only we had known this then, we speak in soft symphony

As we eat the bread and drink the cup of kindly empathy.

 

Who is this woman in the grocery?

A stranger, and yet not;

Mother, sister, ageless friend,

She’s me, she’s you, she’s God’s.