Old Ladies Can Be Creepy Too

or She Was No Rosa Parks

The bus was crowded

I sat on the aisle near the front

careful to avoid eye-contact

did my best to pretend

I was somewhere else

head-phones in

eyes looking out the window

At Macdonald

an old woman got on the bus

moving slowly past the seats

reserved for the disabled and elderly

she pushed her way down the bus

stopping in front of me

I turned down my headphones

She had a clear-plastic rain bonnet

bright purple eye-shadow

red lipstick

spoke in a high pitched British accent

the type of voice you expect to issue

bewildered ‘Well I never’s

I listened to her explain

why she passed seats reserved for her

pointing to the sign

explained that she refuses

to sit in front of those signs

My inner-boy-scout began nagging me

in my polite annoyed voice

I told her she can have my seat

“So many nice young men in this city

you know, I often get offered a seat

but I don’t often get offered a lap.”