He pulled up next behind me in the checkout line

He smelled like urine

His garb was disheveled

It was a bit disturbin’

Onto the conveyor belt he dropped a roll of frozen turkey

The clerk looked at him

He said, through an edentulous mouth, “Been eatin’ this stuff since I was thirty”

His face was wrinkled and pale

The half-eaten loaf of bread in his scooter-cart-basket was stale

He looked just like the saint on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Like he’d been waiting forever for something, but he wasn’t afraid

His hair was white

He asked if I had change to spare

I said, “Alright”

I just stood there as the clerk rang up the ground turkey tube under my tab

The man said, “This’ll be the best meal I’ve had”

I was mystified

For just 5 minutes I’d stood in that line

Checkout was done – the man scooted on past me in his scooter as I bagged my things

He said, “I used to move fast like you; maybe one day I’ll have wings”

He scooted by

Something in my bag caught my eye – the bread I’d just purchased had mold spots

The ground beef turned hard

All of a sudden I felt starved

I exited the grocery store

The man in the scooter had exited through the door

The smell of urine had lifted

The ground turkey wrapper was on the ground

That man and his scooter were no longer around

Had he ever existed?

Back in my car I unloaded groceries

There on the windshield was a note someone had left me

The paper was in the shape of a Thanksgiving turkey

The note said, “Don’t be in such a hurry

That which you are, I once was

That which I am, you soon will be (these very words are what my father once told me)

Enjoy your 30s

Life is like that conveyor belt in the checkout line

Before you know it, it’s your time

Your bladder leaks

And you lose all your teeth

People won’t see what’s underneath

Know that your actions speak

As soon as I finished reading, the wind took that note from my hands

At the grocery store, I never again saw that man