God Is A Ghost On Wrens' Nest Road

Stanzas spill from my eyes and trail the moon for the loves ones whose life has ebbed away.

Love, let me lend you my ancestral wing

across the distance which keeps us apart

to bestow such comfort as it may bring

for the sorrows that inundate your heart.

 

Stanzas spill from my eyes and trail the moon

for the loved ones whose life has ebbed away,

whose love-light flickered and faded too soon

in the mid of night where they both once lay.

 

I cannot pretend to perceive your pain,

what it must be like to lose wife and child;

but I know the tears that patter like rain

whose ocean runs deep when once beguiled.

 

Sadness is a wall between life and death

in the arch of your back, along your spine;

and the sigh and silence between each breath

is a pulse of promise for all divine.

 

Love, my heart aches as any heart would do.

The blood between us is no longer free.

Whatever you suffer, I suffer too;

and my tears are your tears inside of me.

 

Though I have lost sight of your kindred face,

I feel the beat of your beat in my heart.

I wish for you solace, mercy, and grace

and all the comfort my words can impart.

 

The homestead is hollow, silent and still,

as the moon hovers in her graceful turn,

shining brightly on backs of house and hill

in honor of those who will not return.

 

My thoughts embark on a current of tears.

On a river of sleep, I gaze the shore

where Tracey and Jake give praise to the years

and to the memories you built before.

 

Your love has brightened their pathway to peace

and slippered their souls in heaven’s haiku

and dressed them in glimmers of sweet release

like sunlight distils the evening dew.

 

The wings of morning spin circles of light.

Memories of loved ones dwell in the air.

The loss you’ve suffered I cannot recite,

and it is greater than one soul must bear.

 

My thoughts are gliding through evergreen bones,

encircling sky with wings of the heart,

bursting through vineyards and layers of stones

across the distance which keeps us apart.

Author's Note

A failure in an electrical socket is blamed for an overnight house fire that took the lives of 46-year-old Tracey Johnson and her 11-year-old son, Jacob Layne, along with two pet dogs. The fire broke out just after 12:30 a.m. on December 21, 2010, at 1801 Wrens Nest Road in Chesterfield County, Virginia.

53-year-old Kenneth Layne was seriously injured when he escaped by jumping from a second-story window and has suffered burns to his throat and lungs. Firefighters found him ducking for cover by his truck that was parked on the street.

Kenneth had back surgery on Wednesday, December 22,2010, at VCU Medical Center due to injuries sustained when jumping from the window. He is heavily medicated and still unaware that his wife and son are gone.

Kenneth is my uncle. Please keep him in your prayers.

Reviews

[Richard Williams]

A beautiful work sharply expressed, an intense capture of sadness. Such fine writing.

[Mark]

Linda, This is a deeply personal piece. I have that sense with almost everything of yours that I read; you have that knack for bringing others into your world in a beautiful, persuasive, yet subtle fashion. But though you speak most poignantly of HIS loss, you speak but little of your OWN, and that, to my mind, is this poem's sole lack. But perhaps the song, though written nominally to Kenneth, is in fact a plea to your own soul to understand--this is a question I cannot answer. Instead I offer these few picayune suggestions:
"Lost sight of your kindred face", and "the distance which keeps us apart" tell me that you and Kenneth are not in regular contact, but that your memories of him are sharp, and pleasant.
Perhaps, "was dashed" instead of "has ebbed" away" might better convey the suddenness and unexpected nature of the loss?
"...slippered their souls in Heaven's haiku" GREAT line!
I think distills has TWO "l's".

[Pax Analog]

A beautifully compassionate poem and a reminder of the healing virtue of art turned toward real events, particularly a bloodline tragedy.

"My thoughts are gliding through evergreen bones,/encircling sky with wings of the heart,/bursting through vineyards and layers of stones/across the distance which keeps us apart."

Those eloquent closing lines are not only a message to a loved one, they remind us all of our psychic interconnectivity and the power of prayerful loving intent.

Your elegant attentive spiritual grace remains nonpareil.

[Forest Green]

Tragedy dissected and measured by words poetic yet authentic. Nothing illustrates loss like music.
Wishing for the best that might be left...what a heartache.

[The Rock And Roll Cowbo..]

Just love this stanza...

Your love has brightened their pathway to peace
and slippered their souls in heaven’s haiku
and dressed them in glimmers of sweet release
like sunlight distils the evening dew.

so much compassion within your words... people can form a great bond when connected to tragedy when they lean on each other for comfort.

[Dream Weaver]

A truly sad write and oh so heartrending.
Your Uncle will be in my prayers, stay strong!

[Robin]

this is heartbreaking, made more so through your eloquence . truly sad .