from OCTOBER (2004)

There must have been fifteen people outside the post office on Saturday morning and they were all wearing black and a few had flowers and there were several small children, blond and happy and playing with ribbons near the concrete park bench.

Since they were all wearing black it seemed as though things might get very serious but they never did.

A few of them laughed when the leaf blowers started up. Leaf blowers and funerals just seem like a terrible combination along the sidewalk outside the post office just a few steps away. People walked by eating tacos and staring sometimes at everyone wearing black with flowers in their hands right outside the post office.

Finally a woman arrived who everyone knew and loved, wearing a silver dress. She laughed and giggled and the leaf blower was louder than ever.

The sherbert store opened up. The perfume store was closed, probably for good. The old people stopped and watched and the leaf blower was just plain old too loud. In a silver dress she pressed her head onto the shoulder of the man next to her. She rested her hand on the small of his back. She stood giggling, shy, and attentive. If her mother were there, she would have given her a kiss. She would have remembered that.

She would make a beautiful bride. 

She is a beautiful bride.