A Small World

The old eyes look out at the still road,
Tired, Reflecting...
The elderly woman could feel the lines accross her face crease,
The crow's feet at the corners of her deep eyes crinkling every time she smiled.
She looks down at the crimson nail-polish, now chipping away.
It looked so nice a while ago, she thinks, Like a young woman I used to know...
So pretty at first, but I suppose everything ages, doesn't it?
The wood of the oak rocking chair creaks as she taps her heels
repeatedly against the porch floor of her house.
A deliapidated place with peeling green paint and grayed windows.
...Not a house, she thinks, A home. Her home.
Light from the setting sun casts a saffron glaze on everything around the woman,
giving color to her gentle features once more.
The sky is splashed with such the variety of colors,
some of which she cannot even identify.
Inhaling slowly, the woman breathes in the rich evening air.
Moist with the hot day, somehow tasting of oranges and dead grass.
Her shoulders sink with her exhale, and she closes her eyes dreamily.
"Somewhere out there," she spoke with the voice you may as well hear
from a withering woman: Small, quiet though knowledgable,
"Someone younger is living."
She folds her hands together over her rounded belly, taking another breath...
"Someone just died.
Someone just suffered a great loss.
Someone had their heart crushed, and someone is staring at them...
And now, someone is reaching out to help,
Someone is offering comfort..."
The woman watches her unmoving fingers. "Somewhere else...
Someone has encountered a pleasant acquintance.
Someone just fell in love.
Someone just got married...
Someone just had a child, their first child...
Someone just attended their first day of school... Just graduated.
Someone just started their first, job, earned their first paycheck."
She smiles at a memory.
"Someone just had their first kiss.
Someone was just scared out of their wits..."
Another heavy exhale, followed by a more shallow intake of breath.
"Somewhere out there, " she continues, her voice shaking a little,
"Someone is learning a valuable lesson.
Someone has made a new friend,
Singing their favorite song,
Learning to play a new instrument,
Playing a game that they're terrible at...
Coming out of the closet,
Praying for someone dear to them..."
There is a long pause as the woman opens her drooping eyes.
"...Sitting in a rocking chair, remembering something worth remembering.
Someone just had the thought cross their mind that maybe...
This might just be the best day ever."
The clouds in the sky above the house are thin and purple,
stars trying to peek through to the beckoning night.
"Somewhere out there, someone...
was just cut from their job.
Someone just stopped trying.
Someone just started hoping.
Someone just lost another loved one, but at the same time,
Another baby was just born, starting it all over again."
The elderly woman takes in the night air, absorbing it,
letting the wind twirl about her stringy silver hair. "Somewhere out there...
Someone just realized it's the small moments in life
that make up the moments of a lifetime."
That being said, the woman closes her eyes.

One of the two nurses that has been living with the elderly woman
for the past four months steps out of the house.
"Ms. Welling?"
Her wide green eyes search the front porch of the place.
Seeing the woman, she smiles politely and walks over,
laying a hand on her arm. "Ms. Welling, won't you come inside now?
It's very late and... Ms. Welling?"
The nurse leans forward to get a better look at the woman's face.
"Oh, no..." She bites her lower lip, placing a hand over her heart.
She feels suddenly cold as she turns, crossing the porch to call into the house,
"Francine? Could you call Mr. Welling?
I'm afraid his mother just passed..."