{"sf1_id":1713156,"sf2_id":"Zeqqy9ez","title":"Ghost Town Story","author":"Rob MacWolf","words":361,"posted_at":"2021-05-01T19:30:00.000Z","tags":["Ghost","Horror","Poetry","lyric"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1713156-ghost-town-story","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/Zeqqy9ez","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/9d/0e/9d0e3a83-addd-42dc-a14e-f961df898b4f","description":"#35 of poetry\n\nI just really like ghost stories about abandoned houses and towns and things, you know?","content":"September came and ate up all the grass.  \nHe took his weapons down into the plain.  \nThe leaves fell round the farmhouse in the pass  \nThat stood here once. (The chimney bones remain.)  \nSome say he pawned them, needing ready cash  \n\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;So fall away and far away the wind.  \nSome say he used them, usurers to smash  \n\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;Amen Amen Amen, world without end.  \nWhatever happened, barter or attack,  \nSeptember left, and he did not come back.\n\nOctober came and swept the leaves away.  \nA dog gone feral waited by the door  \nThrough freezing night and barely thawing day  \nAlthough nobody fed him anymore.  \nSome say he waited for his master, (dead.)  \n\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;So fly away and die away the wind.  \nSome say he was his master's ghost, (they dread.)  \n\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;Amen Amen, at least the world will end.  \nDead or alive, and human or canine,  \nOctober went, and left him there behind.\n\nNovember came and broke the orchard boughs.  \nThe weather stripped the roof and ripped the walls.  \nA wolfish shape prowled in around the house  \nOn nights like this (when dark like kingdoms falls.)  \nSome say stray lightning set the place ablaze,  \n\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;So go away and throw away the wind.  \nSome say an avalanche the freehold razed.  \n\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;Amen Amen the dead alone can win.  \nHowsoever it did, the thing was done:  \nNovember passed, and all the house was gone.\n\nDecember came and froze the very stars  \nSo that they fell and stopperred up the pass  \nIn walls of white. (It drifted, where we are,  \nA hundred feet or more deep, I would guess.)  \nAnd some say he's a bandit on these crags  \nImmortal, undefeated outlaw king.  \nAnd some say he'll return, in robes or rags,  \nRight all the wrongs, and then it will be spring.  \nI think he and his dog greet travelers here,  \n\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;So soar away no more away the wind.  \nTo tell this tale to all who'll lend an ear.  \n\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;Amen Amen and then again Amen.  \nBut what the truth of that is, who can say?  \nDecember's gone. Now I'll be on my way.\n\n  \n  \n\n","series":{"name":"poetry","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1711016-break-the-circle.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1713527-blank-verse-essay-on-intentionality-in-queer-fiction.json"}}