Moments In Time: Hope in Humanity While Waiting in the Behavioral Health Clinic

Stuck

Seated between the elderly man whose tongue remains in motion

And the pin-eyed middle aged woman whose eyelids keep kissing away light.

“Schnauzer, what a cute dog,”

the man muttered to himself in a rather eccentric tone,

“Oh, so cute, with their big noses and the way they sniff.”

Both the woman and I exchanged questioning glances.

Her sandy blonde hair sat tasseled in an over-sized bun upon her head.

She wore all black baggy clothing, and sported only the finest Marlboro Mist.

Immediately clearing my head of all previous misconceptions,

I showered her with a warm and welcoming smile.

To my surprise, she reflected an even more radiant one back in my direction.

“I can’t take care of a dog” The old man continued to murmur.

My introspection of the slumber-some woman was cut short,

and my full focus reverted back to the man,

engaged in full dialogue with his most speculative self.

I studied his mundane presence, and tried to rate and scale his level of Normality.

He seemed to fall into the category Male and spectrum of Average.

But judging by his impaired skeptical speech, I could tell he was far from it.

Although,

that is the reason why each of us sits here patiently today.

I try to keep in mind that the loss of sanity is the common thread in which we dangle from.

"Well, why don't you get yourself one?"

My racing thoughts stop abruptly in their tracks,

yet this time it is by the woman's hopeful voice chiming in. 

The man’s head took a slight slant, almost in fear. Definitely in disbelief.

“Me? I can’t take care of a dog. I can’t even take care of myself,”

throwing his hands up and open toward the sky,

“what if I forgot to feed him... or left him outside?”

The man bowed his head shamefully.

Looking to the floor, I observe the woman racking her brain for solutions,

"can’t you set an alarm or something?”

The elderly man placed his interlocked fingers on his plump belly.

“That’s what I do to take care of myself. And I can barely do that.”

I crooked my head in her direction, anxiously awaiting her next response.

“Calendar? And an alarm?” She shyly suggested.

Her faith in him was humble.

“Yeah, maybe that could work," the man replied,

his voice and inspiration rising simultaneously,

"Besides a schnauzer will get more people to like me.”

“And it’ll get you out of the house” the woman replied with a sly wink.

"Yeah, you're right, aren't ya?" the man released a confident chuckle,

"I think I am going to get myself a schnauzer after all."