Women on a Bench

as she left the grocery store,
she noticed three elderly women
sitting on a bench and taking in
the swiftly moving world
of carts and disposable starbucks coffee cups.

their wrinkles, penciled in eyebrows --
slightly smudged -- faded red lipstick
and bouffant hairdos were a mixture
of the past and present.

but their eyes missed nothing.

they saw her and smiled
and she felt as if she had encountered
the three graces in disguise.

one of them winked at her
as she formed the thought
and she suddenly felt infused
with a surge of poetry and
pretty phrases.

and, so, it seemed only
right that she should write this for them
as an offering for their gift of creativity.