Love, after fifty years,
is an old woman
riding the bus
for an hour
to a nursing home.
Her husband does not speak.
She does not have much
to say, but today his fingers
closed around her hand.
She stays until the end
of the allowed time.
She will have just missed
the bus. She wanders
the cobblestone streets
of the small town.
Most shops closed at five.
A bakery is still open.
She buys a cookie
to eat on the way.
It is autumn, the dusk
falls early. She rides
home through the dark.
When she steps into her empty
house, she hopes
she will get to do this
again soon.
About the Author: Agnes Vojta grew up in Germany and now lives in Rolla, Missouri where she teaches physics at Missouri S&T and hikes the Ozarks. She is the author of Porous Land (Spartan Press, 2019) and The Eden of Perhaps (Spartan Press, 2020), and her poems have appeared in a variety of magazines.
More By Agnes Vojta:
Image Credit: Jack Delano “Old woman waiting for a bus in front of her house. Newtown, Connecticut” (1940) The Library of Congress (Public Domain)
As It Ought To Be 