Old Man Toad

Old Man Toad come up to the porch. He had a yellow jaundiced eye and skin like a dead leaf. I gave him a light for his cigar and he sat down, puffing and brooding.

"Bad ole times," he said.

"Yep."

"I'm movin' on, myself. Ain't no place no more for folks like me. Nothing round here but garbage and dogs."

"Things come down since I was a boy."

"Yep."

"Used to be rabbits and armadillos all along here. Ain't seen no lizards. Cats eat 'em up."

"I seen a horn-toad a couple years ago. He said he was lightin' out for the fields across the highway. Less development out that way."

We sat a while and he smoked.

"Guess I'll be goin' that way myself," he said.

"Gonna miss you."

"Yeah. You guys give my folks hard times there for a while."

"When you're young you don't know nothing. It's a damn shame."

"Ain't nothing around here for me." He knocked his cigar out against the porch and stood up, hitching his baggy trousers into shape. "Well, I guess I'll go."

"Take care."

Ain't no toads around here no more.