At noon in the Costco food court
the elderly woman strokes her husband’s arm as
she gazes up into his face with a smile and
goes off to the counter to pick up their lunch.
Love, I think. Even here.
Across the aisle a man sits alone
talking to no one through his bedraggled beard
looking at no one through his glassy eyes.
Has anyone ever loved him that way?
At that moment a young woman walks up
with a hot dog and a soda.
She tenderly sets it in front of him with a smile
and returns to sit with her mother a few tables away.
Love. Even here.
Sad that I had not thought to love him myself.
Next time.