MUSIC HEARD FAINTLY ON THE EDGE OF SOUND

The air looked
startled by the thunder

lightning ripped
the sky apart

easy as paper.

Later the evening
wore an ugly bruise

as if Heaven
had been badly beaten up

& left for dead.

The horizon remained
tight lipped

even the crows
refused to caw.

The trees said nothing.

The man
nursed his pain

like a drunk
over a slow gin

retracing his footsteps
to the car

sat inside
as darkness fell

& cried
softly to himself.  

*


A friend of mine who's wife was killed in a car crash( he survived but didn't want to)drove to a secluded spot to commit suicide. He stood in the storm that broke upon him when suddenly he heard singing down in the valley...invisible singing. It was a woman's voice singing in Gaelic and he didn't know what it was she was singing...but it was spookily beautiful. He never found out who it was either...the voice walked across the thick trees below him and finally out of reach and so...he determined...not to...take his life. He regarded it as a sign from his dead wife but of course it was just some hiker singing to her self as she trekked across the valley totally unaware of his troubles and singing to her self because she thought she was on her own and singing just...for the joy ...of singing!

His story always reminded me of Wordsworth's THE SOLITARY REAPER....will no one tell me what she sings?"

In this case she sang to ward off death