Prey

October 19, 2012

Old man looks out his bay window

Thickened and yellowed with age

Sheltered from the light of day

Fuzzy sheep floating in azure sky

Once upon a time

He an army commander

She a southern belle

Alabaster skin so smooth

She could cook a meal when asked

But one sensuous summer day

He found her in the garden

In one hand a white rose

The other a red one

Heat stroke, or so they said

Old woman lumbers to her window

They say vitamin D is good for the skin

Yet she shuns the light

Glittering through the glass pains

Suddenly she sees

Her daughter outside

Such raucous joy

Her ridiculous flowers and plants

Her mother did not particularly mind

Until the day

They found her in the garden

In one hand a white rose

The other a red one

Face flushed not in the innocence of youth

But grotesque in the fire of death

Old woman shivers

Unseasonable chill in the air

She and the old man at his window

Never met, never would

Both at that moment

On that warm, sensuous summer day

Saw only the brown cold

Of the frozen sturdy ground