ABSENCE

‘Oh, hello,’ I said to the man got in the lift a few floors down from mine.
‘Oh, hello,’ he said.
We stood, for a moment, silently on our way down.
‘I don’t like being weak,’ he said, ‘and I know that I am.’
‘Oh,’ I said.
He continued, ‘I yearn to rely on a strong will.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I fear what I’m capable of in its absence.’