i saw michaelangelo

He sat there.

He sat on a cheap plastic stool against a pillar in front of an anonymous store on a busy street in Taipei.  You could easily walk by and not notice him.

But if you were lucky enough to notice him, you would have seen the intense focus of a human being displaying possibly the only skill he has to make a living.  You might also have noticed the white hair that adds further dignity to his appearance.  With a chisel-like instrument in hand, he repairs a simple shoe; I wonder if this was how Michaelangelo looked when he was working on David.

I also wonder who the old man's customers are, where he lives, and whether he has family.  He tells me he has been repairing shoes at the same spot for nearly 40 years.  Perhaps he started working there on the day I was born.  Perhaps my mother walked past him while I was still in the womb.  Perhaps I myself walked past him last year when I visited Taiwan.

I left him.  He still sat there.