Should he be outside

Should he be outside

Wrapped up in a tartan rug

With a big woollen scarf

Resembling a Boa?

Not the feathered variety

But a full-on woollen reptile

Pulled tightly around his neck

His nose peeping out from under a bobble hat

The tip turned blue

His nose, not the hat

It was red

He had a drop of dew dangling

It was a stalactite

I looked at him

He looked right through me

Perhaps he thought I was an apparition

I couldn’t see his mouth

But I visualised him

Saying “Help…I’m only human.”

And asked if he was okay.

“What do you think.”

He mumbled

“You look like you could

Do with a drink” I replied

“Hell yes. Please take me inside.

They put me in a chair

Then disappear

I think they forget I’m sitting here

On their phones half the time

That’s him over there with the beer

Burned-out asshole

He left me with a lemon and lime

To drink through

A straw for goodness sake,

When what I wanted

Was a cheeseburger

And a boilermaker.”

“That sounds like elder abuse to me.”

I laughed.

So did he.