The Woman

She was standing on the corner of the street with a small bouquet of fading flowers.  They were mostly the heads of the flowers and she was holding them loosely at her waist.  The other hand held a cigarette.  When I drove by I noticed her eyes had a distant look though she appeared to be surveying the four lanes of traffic in front of her.  She wore stretch pants and a dirty white blouse over an ample midriff – her greasy hair was pulled back and the glasses on her face listed low and to the right!

In my mind I could see her heading away from or toward a single room apartment on the second floor of a building close by.  The room no doubt had a stale sour smell of unwashed laundry beneath a recent layer of tobacco smoke.  There would be a man somewhere in the room – likely lying on the bed watching TV with an ash tray and a 16 ounce can of fortified malt liquor on a tray close at hand!  The man would be thin and withered looking, with stubble and few good teeth left!  She would likely introduce him as her fiancée when she had the occasion!  She could have had three children that she gave up for adoption, the first at the urging of her parents, and then the later ones at the urging of the state workers. 

She had likely already used up her food stamps allocation for the month and would be close to reaching the limit from the food pantry agency as well.  Sometime during the day she might see a cat or a dog and think that when she and her fiancée got married and found a better place to live she would have a pet of her own. 

As she faded in the rear view mirror she pushed up her glasses and continued to stare straight ahead, but the flowers held at her waist appeared briefly like a small brown and white bird caught in its first moment of flight!