Senior Discount - Ali Liebegott

[Larry Robinson]

Senior Discount

I want to grow old with you.
Old, old.
 
So old we pad through the supermarket
using the shopping cart as a cane that steadies us.
 
I’ll wait at register two in my green sweater
with threadbare elbows, smiling
because you’ve forgotten the bag of day-old pastries.
 
The cashier will tell me a joke about barbers as I wait.
He repeats the first line three times
but the only word I understand is barber.
 
Over the years we’ve caught inklings
of our shrinking frames and hunched spines.
 
You’re a little confused
looking for me at the wrong register with a bag
of almost-stale croissants clenched in your hand.
 
The first time I held your hand it felt enormous in my own.
Sasquatch, I teased you, a million years ago.
 
Over here, I yell, but not in a mad way.
 
We’re laughing.
You have a bright yellow pin on your coat that says, Shalom!
 
Senior Discount, you say.
But the cashier already knows us.
We’re everyone’s favorite customers.
 
	- Ali Liebegott

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