Dead Things

                              " Dead things for a new day"
                                                             Shawn Ray

Talk to the stranger, around the comer, one day. He was only interested in his roses, and about his neck, that he broke, somehow.

Years later, his widow is still living in the house. His next door neighbour is cutting the old

,man's lawn. I tell him the story and

he says, " The man had cancer and when he broke his neck working in his garden, he was tested and found out. " So like Rilke, cutting himself and realizing, later, he was going to die.

And there was the well built man who use

to walk the blocks that are around the school. Caught up with him, one day, and we

walked fast around and he waved goodbye.

Later, months after, another neighbour told me he had died at forty five, brain cancer.

They still come around, and talk to me. Sometimes when I let the black dogs out to play, they bring me back a person, who

has a story to tell, before he or she is going

to pass on, to the other side.

© Copyright, 2013, d.n. simmers.
All Rights Reserved.