When Oldguy spots an old lady waiting
for the light to change, he steps up
and gently takes her arm. On green, he
helps her off the curb and into the street,
remembering his Boy Scout days, when
he earned all the merit badges in a day
and invented some new ones: Missile
Interception, Boulder Shattering, Volcano
Stoppering, Elephant Bench-Pressing.
All the Girl Scouts wanted to camp out
with him, stitch up a lanyard or two,
explore the more advanced knots, but
the red phone clamored all the time:
off he’d go to thwart the latest megalomaniac
or suck the air from another hurricane.
He needed a silo to hold his medals. Now,
after he gets the old lady across, she pats
his hand and asks, “Do you need more help?”