Beautiful Morning

This is a beautiful morning because the guy walking his black lab about a half block ahead of Ripley and me wears his tight black jeans and leather jacket well and Ripley has to pee so we never catch up with them so that way I am not disappointed.  And I say hello to Morgan or Sara whose names I get straight sometimes and sometimes do not and I ask her if she's going home, because then Ripley and I would walk with her on the way, but she says, no, they are heading to Virginia, because she means for the holiday, and I say I meant no home here and she says oh their walk is just beginning, her and her dog, whose name I also forget, and we say goodbye.  Then I wave at my neighbor in his truck but he doesn't see me because I am white and old and his neighbor anyway.  And the party is over and Laurie is still no older than she was a month ago.  And the icy air cuts through me like angels' knives and Ripley knows his way to the door all by himself.