CHILLED TO THE BONE

On Monday -

While walking hand in hand

with Canadian Christopher

down Ann Arbor side streets

we passed through the shadows

of a woman & her son.

The boy was a skeleton tripping

dazedly behind his zombified mother;

out & about on this summer's Halloween

day scream.

The scream was a silent tear drop that

chilled me & froze me where I stood -

looking after the phantom couple,

with their knowing eyes & sad smiles...

The ghostly look that they gave

of the abject hopelessness of the dead

that breathe still...

That helplessness threatening to bury

them in happy thoughts & warm denial

of their ghastly existence...

That chill that held me while they passed away...

I hate it as I write here & dream that I ran after

& held them

& told them it would be alright.

As if they would welcome my sweet sounding lies, my pity, or

my compassion.

One more disappointment & their decaying world may have crumbled.

Maybe I did the right thing...

Maybe it doesn't help to feel bad for them...

Maybe not...

But maybe that isn't the point.