man

There is a man who always
comes in for a senior coffee
and a chocolate chip cookie
every night.
He sits there in his red UNLV coat
and black Bulls hat
drinks his coffee black
through a scowl he doesn't realize he wears.
He watches people walking in and out of the store,
squinting slightly through his
dark brown horn-rimmed glasses.

Once, he told me he had a girlfriend,
young and pretty,
showed me her picture and said
he'd bring her in
but I've never seen her.

He walks past, but not toward the door,
and I say goodnight anyway.
He smiles, says he isn't leaving
just yet
and hands me a green sucker
with a rounded handle
leaves, then comes back again
sits for a while longer.

He watches the crowd anxiously but passively, somehow.

Waits silently, takes a reluctant
last sip,
stands slowly, and is gone.

~He'll be back again tomorrow night~