Dean Ericksen's Metro Melodrama

My brother-in-law and friend, Dean Ericksen, sent me this vignette. Wow.
______________________________________

I know these facts:

So this guy comes up to the bus stop on Leary and 15th. He’s a gulf war vet. He is carrying a guitar. He asks me if the tree above is an apple tree. I look at the tiny fruit and confirm, yes, it is. I ask him about his guitar. He said that he’s re-learning to play after 16 years. We talk for a while. He said he’s a songwriter. He shuffles through his large backpack and pulls out a CD player and headphones. The CD player is actively playing (it wasn’t turned off). He slaps the phones on my head. It’s a slow, R&B jam. Smooth, but lo-fi. It’s him alright. He’s singing, “I need a girl, to whet my appetite...” Whet it for what? Anyway I swayed and smiled approvingly, and then a woman comes up and pushes a bunch of Jehovah’s Witness literature into his hand. He thinks she’s cute, and pretends to show interest in the magazines as he sizes her up. She twirls her hair with a finger and acts coy. The bus rolls up, and both of them look at each other like “will this be our last chance to find love?” They part; the moment is bruised.

This happens all over the world all of the time. It’s time for God to drop the love bomb.

-Dean
---o0o---