winds

I noticed the man a few weeks after fall semester had begun.
Smoking a cigarette, pouring the grease into the soft mound of dirt right outside my doorstep
-each day, I saw him.

I swear I saw him behind the dumpster one day on the walk to class
using the ice as a mirror. I didn't know anything about him or his circumstances for acting as he did
but I didn't worry either when I saw him, because I saw him everyday for 3 months.

One day, while passing the dumpster, I didn't see him so I continued on, disenchanted.
A few moments later I saw him sprawled on an apartment complexs steps, sipping a pint of an abborhation of a tequila brand.

I had built up the courage
after 3 months of gazing at each other, of him watching me, and me questioning his motives,
I had decided to ask him why he lingered around, just staring at me.

So I asked, my words falling out over my tongue, out of my mouth.

He stared at me, blank eyed, the same stare he had first slipped me some 4 months back. His mouth opened and he softly replied, his voice getting lost in the wind:
"I'm finally living my life".