What I saved up my whole life for
A marching band played on the street
last night in front of the Hotel room where I live.
I sat in my room,
in my favorite chair,
and I looked at the walls
thinking
how odd it was that
a marching band
is outside my window.
At 2:30 in the morning the band stopped.
I heard the people putting
their instruments away into
car trunks.
I looked out the window and saw
people
opening car doors
and closing them
and driving away.
I watched the cars driving off into the dark
for ten or fifteen minutes,
and then I sat back down.
At 2:45, people that the bars had spit out
were now running all over the street laughing and screaming.
I got up out of my chair and leaned
out of my window. I yelled:
“Knock it off! An old guy is resting up here!”
That got a few laughs, and then I sat back down
and checked the walls to see if anything new was
happening.
I saw a fly crawling around on one of the walls.
I tried to guess which way the fly might
walk in the next moment.
For an hour I was accurate about
the fly’s movements fifty percent of the time.
Then the fly flew somewhere out of my sight
at four o’clock.
I looked back at the walls.
At 4:30 the streets were quiet,
and Friday night was over.
The walls stayed the same all night
with the exception of the fly.
At five thirty I was out of my clothes,
and in bed asleep.
An hour and forty five minutes later at 7:15
my alarm went off, and I got up out of bed.
I put my clothes back on and I got ready for
a brand new day.
