Late at night near a rural shelter, a wizened figure hobbles closer.
With chapped lips he drags on a bone pipe,
the warm smoke hangs in the air.
I stand still, breathe it in politely until my throat itches.
I'm told a tale of some faraway town
and a girl, his daughter, who left one night without explanation.
As an owl hoots somewhere behind us,
He wipes away a tear. It leaves a clean track through the layers of soot and grime.
A dog barks in the distance and the hedge full of cicadas almost drowns out his whispered, dreary tale.
I cough and move to reach for my wallet. He doesn't see.
He has started to shuffle away,
murmuring to himself about how she never made it back home.
Jan 11, 2018
Jan 11, 2018 at 4:56 PM UTC
Late at night near a rural shelter, a wizened figure hobbles closer.
With chapped lips he drags on a bone pipe,
the warm smoke hangs in the air.
I stand still, breathe it in politely until my throat itches.
I'm told a tale of some faraway town
and a girl, his daughter, who left one night without explanation.
As an owl hoots somewhere behind us,
He wipes away a tear. It leaves a clean track through the layers of soot and grime.
A dog barks in the distance and the hedge full of cicadas almost drowns out his whispered, dreary tale.
I cough and move to reach for my wallet. He doesn't see.
He has started to shuffle away,
murmuring to himself about how she never made it back home.