.................................
When I'm an old woman
.................................

and my hair is white and a bit sparse on top
and the knuckles on my hands are gnarled and bent
when my legs are all spindly and my money's been spent
an oxygen tube trail follows me around
from smoking too much in my youth
when my eyes are blurred from cataracts
and I haven't got a tooth
I will bum cigarettes from the paperboy
and beg the mailman for them too
I'll drive to the drugstore in a big old Buick
and eat chocolate ice cream outta the box
and yell at the kids who run through my yard
and cuss at the neighbors dumb dog
and sometimes I won't answer the phone just
to scare my daughter
and I'll sleep all day and stay up all night
and when they find me dead
I'll be wearing my best shoes and dress
sitting in the front seat of the Buick
they'll think I was going to the drugstore
and forgot to open the garage door

.................................
Julie Schillinger
.................................

 
Copyright © Julie Schillinger
March 1996

...a poem in this room by Renay...
"flowers, all my life only flowers..."
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