Clouds, Towers and Stars

I was digging a hole to repair a water main break. Richmond Indiana was my home then. While wiping the sweat from my brow...I saw and faintly heard him. An old man was having a conversation with a telephone pole. I had to laugh out loud and he heard me.

He came walking quickly and I was preparing to apologize quickly. He suddenly stopped at the edge of the broken sidewalk by the hole I was standing in. He looked down and asked,"Have you seen my tigers?"

I tried to hold back my chuckles but couldn't. I shook my head....no. He put his right hand under his chin and left hand on his right elbow and said,"Damn...are you sure....they have black and orange stripes....I call the male, Sissy and the female Tuffy."

Laughing...I said,"Sorry...just haven't seen any tigers today." He notice my cooler sitting by the bottom step of the porch. He mumbled,"Sure is hot...hunting for tigers can make a man mighty thirsty." I smiled and told him to get us each a beer from the cooler.

In a split second...he had two beers...one in each hand...twisted the caps with his thumbs and flipped them in the hole. He grinned and said,"I learned how to do that from my wife and our one armed monkey in Bangladesh."

I just chuckled as he went on saying,"My wife...rest her fat ass, bitching soul...taught him how to do do it after he lost his right arm in the motor fan of our Jeep....the monkey loved beer and the wife got tired of opening bottles for him."

Laughing...I asked,"What was the monkey's name." He chugged half of his beer...wiped his mouth and said,"Nixon....we named him Nixon because Richard Nixon was president." He laughed and went on,"Bertha...my wife...taught him how to make a peace a sign with his fingers when we lived in San Francisco."

I had to ask,"Were you Hippies?" He grumbled fast,"Noooo...couldn't stand Hippies...if a man uses a drug to feel good all the time...he won't learn what he should from feeling bad."

His beer was gone and mine was half full. I told him to help himself. I was getting curios about this old...odd fellow. He dragged the cooler to the grass...sat on it...flipped another cap in the hole and said,"I've been all over the world...and I don't mean the wife's ass!"

I grinned as he went on,"Tokyo, Stalingrad, Berlin, London, Bogota, Jerusalem, Beijing and even Cleveland Ohio!" As I laughed he said,"Yip Cleveland...my wife was Nose Tackle for the Brewers....women's football league team."

I had never heard of such a thing but I just kept listening as he drank and told his tales. He mentioned about being in South America where he got the monkey and talked about sailing on the Mediterranean from Barcelona to Cairo. I thought that if his tales weren't true...he was one hell of a liar.

After his fourth beer...he opened his fifth...looked up at the sky and said,"Clouds, towers and stars young man....life is nothing but clouds towers and stars."

I smiled and said,"How so?" With misty eyes he said,"The poor look up at the towers in the clouds and wish they were wealthy....the wealthy look up from the top of their towers and wish they were poor in the stars."

I said,"I don't understand....what do you mean...the wealthy wish they were poor?" He looked at me saying,"People want everything and nothing at the same time...I knew a rich man who wanted a poor married woman...she was an angel...she was the star he wanted to hold...he would have gladly been broke for just a taste of her love."

He slapped his hand on his knee...laughing and shouted,"Unsatisfied is the name of the tail chasing dogs that we all are...round and round we spin on this beautiful old earth...chasing wishes and wants!"

He got up...opened the cooler and handed me the last beer. He put his thumbs in his brown vest pockets and said,"Time for me to get back to searching for my tigers."

I had to ask...."Why were you talking to the telephone pole?" He grinned wide and said,"Oh young man...but the greater question is....why were you having a conversation and sharing drinks with a man who was talking to a telephone pole?"

He whipped around and proudly strutted away. He just had to wave at that pole as he walked by it.