Forgotten Man

He did something weird for a living.

Something to do with coin boxes in laundromats
He lived a short dirt path away from his mother,
two blocks at most.

He went there every night for dinner,
boasting that lately he had been walking there
instead of driving.

Mama don't cook nothin' without gravy on it
said the 45-year-old laundromat man.
He also told me
in our last conversation,
that he masturbated to hardcore porn before bed
Women being hurt.
He called it taking a Sominex.

By that point I was just listening politely,
ready to blur him into anonymity.

I think I'm thinking of him
because he lived in Northwestern Florida
near Alabama
not near the water.

He called it the Redneck something (not Riveria)
with a touch of irony.
Like the redneck part had nothing to do with him.

Now he's probably evacuating from Hurricane Helene
Maybe he has a wife now.
Maybe she don't cook nothin' without gravy on it.
Maybe he can walk long distances now,
like three blocks.

There is no maybe
as to whether I should forget about him again.
I was surprised that he wasn't permanently deleted.

I don't remember his name,
only that I had just moved when I talked to him.
I was lonely.

And now the memory
makes me feel lonelier still.