It’s in the photos from the weekend – we’re both going gray

But it’s great to run through the Capital on a pretty spring day

Contributing to our seniority: I see the next generation

Onboard the train, four of them, like a small sorority

I listen in on their conversation

Just across the aisle

A young man in pink pants

The other with a sassy voice

The young girl with nothing but four letter words in her vocabulary

Never mind that their attire is shabby

I wonder if this is what it’s like to be a senior in a church pew

They talk of “transformations” and house parties

Who’s interested in who

One of the girls looks like a Barbie

Four letter words on the exchange

I wonder what their parents do

Do the kids even care if they approve

Cell phones shimmer in the sunlight through the window

The Amtrak guy says, “We’re coming up on our stop, line up in the row”

I read the words in the book I’m holding

The words from the teacher come across a bit scolding

To call someone a fool has the same root as murder

What thoughts lead to words then actions

I watch the kids across from me start packing

A few rows down there’s a scuffle

Bags fall from the ceiling

An elderly woman lies on the floor reeling

The two young men race to stop the falling bags

One of the girls says, “Help-lady-fall-CPR-tags?”

The Barbie-looking girl went to help too

The elderly woman had just taken some bruises and a sprained knee

The group of young people helped her up to her feet

I sat back and watched in my delusion

When that doll of a young girl walked up and said to me, “You look like a beauty queen”

Did she see through my insecurity

She smiled as her friend chimed in: “Beaut,” “skin,” “eyes,” “beaut”

They all then helped that woman off the train

One guy took the handkerchief from his neck and gave it to that crying lady

I watched from the window

As the train rode off

I prayed I’d undergo some sort of transformation

This heart of judgement, where is the root

That labels people

Get me out of that pew

To see beyond the attire, the words, the outside

Transform the seeds, transform my mind