moondark

 

 

V

SLIDE >

 

 

 

    

 

 

Would you mind if I slide in behind you while you drive? I feel more secure in the rear. I am conscious of collisions from the frontal, something I’ve dealt with all my life and don’t know why, but panic does set in. The fear is real and I am terrified. Perhaps it has something to do with the on-rushing fools on roadways… distracted, angry, too tight, too confined, and all the time on a strip of pavement wide enough for only two vehicles with sharp curves ahead. Perhaps it would be too easy to ease, or swerve, or slide into the oncoming lane, be it either intended or distracted it’s just too late to ponder with an outcome sure to be calamity.

 

 

V

 

WITNESS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

V

 

The Churn

 

He crested well before his time.

The bottom dropped out

the wave failed.

With some luck

Some can ride them long,

clean into shore,

others get

caught in chop,

and tumbled.

some churn

while still others

 glide smooth

and effortless

all depends

on the wave

the maneuver

and the break

 

 

V

The Srease

 

V

Persist

 

His life had become a series of near misses. Glimmers of success only to turn to dust. Not sure if it was a sign of poor intellect or simply bad luck, he was struck down only to get up and persist. But persisting in the grueling monotony, on the ragged edge of tragedy. He could taste it and it was bitter. Good enough to endure but not succeed. Good enough but not great. Enough but never more. The floor barely able to support him, he'd stumble for the door, but the door remained jammed and denied him passage. Tug as he might it never opened. Intellect or luck?  Neither applied.

 

 

V

Snow Day

“Is there school tomorrow?” the old man asked.

“No, Dad, there's no school tomorrow,” his son answered.

“Why? Why not?”

“It's a snow day.”

“I'll get there early...”

“School's closed.”

“I really like school...Miss Hawthorne...”

“Miss Hawthorne?” that was a name he'd never heard.

“I like Miss Hawthorne.”

“You do, huh”

“I would like to marry her some day.”

“Oh! You really like Miss Hawthorne, do you?

“She's the best.”

“I bet she is. Is she pretty?”

“Yes, and highly intelligent.”

“Oh my, the whole package, is she?”

“When I was in the Navy...”

“You were in the Navy, Dad? That's the first I heard of it...”

“Before your time...”

“I guess so.”

“You were a good boy back then...”

“I was? But not so much so now?”

“Too much like your Mother.”

“Mom wasn't to your liking?”

“She was a hardheaded bitch.”

“And yet you spent fifty-three years together.”

“My mistake...she made me earn it”

“You can't take it back, Dad”

“Not like Miss Hawthorne at all.”

“Mom wasn't so bad...”

“Says you, her only son...”

“I don't know, Dad, Mom put up with you all those years...”

“Miss Hawthorne liked me. Miss Hawthorne loved me! I was her favorite. Should have married Miss Hawthorne...”

“If you say so. She'd be over a hundred by now.”

“I'm going to school tomorrow, snow or no snow.”

“Okay Dad, but you better get to bed early. We'll fix your lunch and lay out your clothes for you,

“You'd do that, boy?”

“I would Dad. Now get some sleep, you've got a big day ahead of you.”

“...my striped shirt...spiffy.”

“Sure thing, Dad.”

“You're a good boy.”

“I love you Dad.”

“Your Mother was a piece of work...I loved her.”

“I know, Dad, she was. Goodnight.”

On the eve of his eternal night.

V