Ghost Town Story
#35 of poetry
I just really like ghost stories about abandoned houses and towns and things, you know?
September came and ate up all the grass.
He took his weapons down into the plain.
The leaves fell round the farmhouse in the pass
That stood here once. (The chimney bones remain.)
Some say he pawned them, needing ready cash
So fall away and far away the wind.
Some say he used them, usurers to smash
Amen Amen Amen, world without end.
Whatever happened, barter or attack,
September left, and he did not come back.
October came and swept the leaves away.
A dog gone feral waited by the door
Through freezing night and barely thawing day
Although nobody fed him anymore.
Some say he waited for his master, (dead.)
So fly away and die away the wind.
Some say he was his master's ghost, (they dread.)
Amen Amen, at least the world will end.
Dead or alive, and human or canine,
October went, and left him there behind.
November came and broke the orchard boughs.
The weather stripped the roof and ripped the walls.
A wolfish shape prowled in around the house
On nights like this (when dark like kingdoms falls.)
Some say stray lightning set the place ablaze,
So go away and throw away the wind.
Some say an avalanche the freehold razed.
Amen Amen the dead alone can win.
Howsoever it did, the thing was done:
November passed, and all the house was gone.
December came and froze the very stars
So that they fell and stopperred up the pass
In walls of white. (It drifted, where we are,
A hundred feet or more deep, I would guess.)
And some say he's a bandit on these crags
Immortal, undefeated outlaw king.
And some say he'll return, in robes or rags,
Right all the wrongs, and then it will be spring.
I think he and his dog greet travelers here,
So soar away no more away the wind.
To tell this tale to all who'll lend an ear.
Amen Amen and then again Amen.
But what the truth of that is, who can say?
December's gone. Now I'll be on my way.