He Lives Alone

 

He lives alone although he was once married

to a woman who was, he told us, a good cook.

He lives far from his place of employment

so that it takes over an hour on public transit

to arrive at work, and the same to end the day

back at his home. He is a man who has lived

many years, his face deeply runnelled by time

and a life lived at the edges of poverty. His

face resembles that of the former president of his 

home country, the Philippines. One day, without

warning he suddenly found himself unable to

move, his body unresponsive and he feared

the worst. The ambulance paramedics calmed

his fears, but he was right; it was his heart

warning him of impending mortality. Aided

by a social worker after recovery from surgery

he's long been back at work, lugubrious at times

his wry sense of humour intact. He informs us

as familiar faces of various facets of his life. 

We see him as often as we do the weekly grocery

shopping and seek him out at the check-out cash

he is assigned to for he is a diligent worker. We 

empathize with him, value our friendly relations

while admiring him for his work ethic. Last week

we saw him animated when a woman shopper was

at his cash check-out and he spoke with her in

Tagalog, a blessed fellow Filipino. When he turned

to us, he momentarily beamed an unusual smile.