The Watching Lots

What is this place

Publix Cub Foods Safeway

Ralphs A and P

or any of a thousand stores

where the old sit

inside the cars of their wives

sons daughters

the caretakers of the challenged

in their later years

with Alzheimer's or just

significant white matter disease

that pulls the sitters away from

the rest of us

who pass by with our shopping carts

the ones who do not notice

that an old person is in a car

on a hot day

Now if it were a dog

we'd check to make certain

the windows were down

or a child where police

would be rushed

to break the window

or fish the lock open

to save the young one

But it's just an older person

we assume to be an adult

capable of all the adult decisions

we have for ourselves

as the heaps of Cheerios

flavored yogurt

household goods

sail by those empty eyes

Are we even in thought

when we park across

from another car

that maybe the tired one

is inside to buy the necessities

for the one inside the far stare

who wears the Depends

and spends most of the day

in front of a television

entertained by everything

the family cannot provide

For the minutes they are alone

on a cold or hot day

you are the watcher

who makes certain

nothing happens to the ones

who tossed a child on his knee

or carried the shopper to term

because now

the child has become the parent

the child who is the only one

in a large family who cares

or loves

and can't leave the wanderer

at home

to fall down the stairs

to forget the walker

to imagine they go off to work

or hear a party down the block

you provide the respite

as you in thoughtless hurry

park to buy a salad or a sandwich

So this is the watching lot

full of old people sitting in vehicles

not quite with us

and yet alive inside the years

that you see on their faces

their lonely faces

as they wait for the one

who gives them a bath

feeds them some chicken

who makes peas far too often

the one who wakes up in the middle

of the night to any sound

their parent makes

the tears of a dream

the shouts of a happy child

remembered in the dark

the tired son

the exhausted daughter

away from their father or mother

to get a bit of life

as they shop for a break

you now give them

for five ten or fifteen minutes

the only time they have away

or are a part of the world

outside the home where

mummy or daddy

provides an absolute rule

often in silence

the kings and queens of emptiness

as their last golden moments

tick away in a lift chair

or a ten year old Chevy

in the parking lot of a grocery store

Copyright (c) 2012 by Barry G. Wick