a bit of food gathers at the edge of his mouth, mrs. dixon passes  in the hallway, smiles and gestures to her mouth, he gets the message and says thanks / old people have to stick together and watch out for each other

if he were five years younger he would consider Custer’s last stand with the widow       but the hammer is gone from his toolbox and viagra would probably just make his feet swell

shuffling back to his room he opens the window and places a mixture of crumbs and birdseed on the ledge           soon there are several birds vying for the mixture, they know his schedule

he removes his shoes and dons his sneakers         off to the exercise room     he has trimmed his routine to three days a week      just like attending services in the chapel on Sunday it’s a given

moving down the hall, nurse elanor motions to him and hands him his cup of pills, she says, “keep up the exercise ed, i might think about leaving Hank”

a month later she does…………………………..but not for ed