Being senior

摘要

Takes a village to finish your sentence, the condition sentence enough, word sought jammed between dream and next sip of dark roast. Put downs come to mind. "Carry out, ma'am?" Not there yet, doesn't he notice my gym sweats? "Are you still here?" Last time I looked! So many questions at our age. "Just worn cartilage," the orthopedist tosses off, lighting up my knee x-ray. "What's next?" I ask. "Nothing," he says. Last night in the parking lot after the theater, my friend can't find her car. "It's new, all electric, gray." She click-clicks her key thing. I drive her up and down the aisles of cars, all unresponsive shadows in night's gloom, no little red lights blinking "here." "Oh," she remembers with a lurch, "I parked it on the street." Another friend, only weeks ago his children weeping at his bedside, rose from a near coma.