There Was An Old Woman Who Sat On A Bus

There was an old woman

Who sat on a bus

She rode it out of cold weather

Through a mountain pass

And came to a town

Adjacent to a lake

Whose name she couldn’t pronounce

Luckily, she didn’t need to pronounce it

Or anything else

Nobody spoke to her

As she got off the bus

And looked around

For anything that could be

A hotel or bed and breakfast

What she found was a room for rent

Above a store
Just like what she’d hoped for

But wasn’t expecting

It was only a room

When back home

She had a house

So many rooms

She would go in and out of them

Just to justify

Her ownership

Lights to turn on and off

Places to keep heated

Drawers to keep stuffed

With clothing and other items

And payment required

For all of it

Until she said ‘No more’

That was when

She got on the bus

And went through a mountain

To someplace else

There was an old woman

Who lived in a room

In a town where she knew

No one at all

The holidays showed up

And for the first time

There was no question

What she would be doing

For them

Nothing

There was nobody to see

No friends or family

And nowhere to be

The town had a community dinner

For people like her

People without an assigned obligation

But she chose

To sit in her bed

In her room

And read a book all day

Finding it to be sad at first

And then not-so-sad

And then sad for a little while longer

When the sunlight stopped

And the Christmas day

Turned into Christmas night

But then again, she remembered

Everybody gets a little sad

Once Christmas is done

So maybe her sadness

Was not a peculiar kind of sadness at all

But a standard one

Which meant it could be overcome

There was an old woman

Who walked through a town

And decided that it wasn’t for her after all

She had paid for the room

Through to the end of the month

But there was business to tend to back home

And enough of it

That was it easier to just return

And live the rest of it out

Drastic change is refreshing

But exhausting

Even in the best of circumstances

If she’d had a phone

She was sure it’d be ringing

With concerned friends

Provided one or more of them

Thought to check on her

Over the holidays

In the meantime

She’d been doing a lot of nothing

And enjoying it immensely

All her life

She’d wanted to know

If she was enough

In and of herself

To feel content

It took her too long

To answer that question

But once she had

It made her realize

That life is, in fact,

Better with people

But only if it’s the right people

And there aren’t many of them

To go around

And given the choice

Between people who aren’t right

And yourself

You’d better go with you

And if you’re not right

Well, you’d better

Take care of that

She was right

Right now

But it took some time to get there

So she might as well enjoy it

That’s how she thought of it anyway

There was an old woman

Who sat on a bus

And traveled home

Through a mountain

Looking forward to returning

With the newfound knowledge

That not every room

Needs to be walked in

And not even drawer

Needs to be full