Old Man in the Neighborhood

Childhood
Mem‘ries. Quiet.
Aloof. He went and came.
No one knew his name. We called him
‘Old man.’

He spoke
To no one. Did
He have acquaintances?
Or family? Quite the stranger
Was he.

He lived
In a shanty.
And, sadly, one day was
Taken in a house fire. But who
Was he?

He died
The way he lived.
Anonymously. And
More than sixty years later… who
Was he?

© 2016 walterrean salley