The Beauty

Reaching for a carton of milk at the same time
as a pretty young woman, we simultaneously
said excuse mes and of course I said “Age before
beauty!” motioning for her to go ahead of me.
This, of course, caught her completely off guard
and instinctively she was about to correct me,
but instead grasped the carton with both hands
and smiled at me before heading off to the counter,
while I thought to myself, “Age before beauty”
in this instance could have been perfectly correct
in that she was so much younger than I and probably
much more involved with life’s tasks than I,
and with less time to waste, needed to get her milk
and be on her way, and the beauty of the whole affair—
the beauty of yours truly!-- was that I recognized this,
which surely is a testament to my character, intelligence
and wisdom...