Characters In the Woods

I was driving to work today
Listening to the radio
Moving from freeway to freeway
And settling in for the hour
Right then, I start to hear the voices
same voices, everyday
An old man who meets a girl half his age
Who tries to con her into loving him,
A dog searching for truth and love
within his shitty existence of being chained to a wall
in a 7 by 7 concrete backyard
A young girl, just out of college, bent on the fervor
of life in the big city, allows herself to be drunk,
naked and touched for the first time
Around this time I am off the freeway
Hearing the final voice
The guy driving into the parking lot of his office job
With all those characters he knows and cherishes close to him,
They blink at one another and then to him
- the guy – the characters – they stare - in awe of each other –
the young college girl says “It’s okay, mister. In due time”
and her neighbor, the old chained dog with his pleading eyes beckon him saying
“I know your gonna let me out.”
Then after blinking and a small sigh the guy gets out of his car and heads into the office and the characters all walk together into the woods.

By Morty Diamond