Paul, At Round-Up Time

by Loosh

(Maybe it was just a sudden shift in the wind that distorted the sound of a far away siren?)

I heard a banshee cry.
Fear seized my heart, someone was going to die!
Dusk was just falling and the streets were empty.
A storm was blowing in--
Who would it be, I wondered,
A friend? A foe? Or kin?

Hurry home, skin prickling, urgency to call
Shout a warning, help! beware--one and all!

Dread stopped my mouth, fear sat on my shoulder
Even with this knowing, could you face death bolder?

Next gray morning crow was there to comfort me
Silently watching from the telephone pole tree.

It was later that week I heard the news about Paul
While shopping for groceries beside the wine stall.

In some lonely place his brain seized, he fell
and lay there 'til they found him. "He's in a nursing home
and not well."

Not himself and not yet 40.
I remembered him on a different day when rain was pouring down.
He was herding shopping carts in the parking lot in this wet weary town.

Fifty carts in a long train locked together
I admired his skill as he managed them into shelter.

Like a painting flaking away over an older painting
Time has revealed the mystery of the unchanging

Cycles and seasons of life and death
A pagan in the city hears the sigh of ancient breath!