Haunted

[Jerrybaldy]

Her linen dress glows cream
by the sympathetic moon
returning her thankful gaze.
The star scape splays
her super wide view
and the cold steel bleeds
through her flesh.

John Bull is starring
as Casey Jones
with a death wish,
racing moonlit rails
and the white lines
on the dials.
With a clotted cream smile
he scans each
twin track ahead.

Their eyes meet
too brief
for too long
as he bursts
into her night.
His stubble lit by dial light,
her tender frame caught frozen
by locomotive headlight.

Passengers with newspapers
and coffee in polystyrene cups
fly through the dark
and john squints
as the wipers
smear the muck,
that her sudden passing
splashed back.

On either side,
her stiletto heels
look way too long
holding calf length
bloody stumps
and her hair is cruelly cut
precisely the length
of her severed
and lovebitten neck.

John reads her
hand written note
that says she will wait
for the 19:48
and the red lights
glow dim
as the passengers
are left to their fate.


A kitten
alone on the tracks
settles upon her warm torso
and bathes in the cream
of the moon.

(The moon, the moon, the moon
by the light of the haunted moon)

[Haunted]

I don't know why but I love the title...and the 19:48...and the final moonlit destination.
(the kitten is a nice touch.)

Jane thanks John for the trip.
x

[Delta40]

I don't know about the 1948 thing (pardon my ignorance) but I do like how you incorporate it into a timeframe other than a year. I have imagined Haunted in the role as you (John Bull as Casey Jones for Christ sakes?) drive that train into the destructive moonlit light.

clotted cream. Sweet suggestiveness. I won't speculate about bloody stumps though...

[Haunted]

I don't know about the 1948 thing (pardon my ignorance) but I do like how you incorporate it into a timeframe other than a year. I have imagined Haunted in the role as you (John Bull as Casey Jones for Christ sakes?) drive that train into the destructive moonlit light.

clotted cream. Sweet suggestiveness. I won't speculate about bloody stumps though...

1948 came from a trashy poem in which haunted fell to death from a cliff (notice the recurring theme :D) and became formally known as Jane Doe in a later sequel. John is John Doe, the dead guy in the same morgue but I think John Bull also is Jerry Baldy. I didn't know who Casey Jones is but I like your interpretation. As far as the bloody stumps, they ain't pretty!

[everyadventure]

Casey Jones was a train engineer who had achieved a status of a folklore hero. Haunted, you're the only person I know who would be delighted to be decapitated in a poem :)

Very vivid, Jerrybaldy!

[PrinceMyshkin]

Indeed, more than a touch too vivid for me! And the purposeful reiteration of cream in several images: didn't know what to make of that. You must have been in a foul mood when you wrote this!

[hillwalker]

Tragic story of doomed love - I found the graphic description of her severed stiletto heels and impromptu haircut lightened the mood enough to realise it's a tongue-in-cheek paean to a certain respected writer and her avatar

[Delta40]

1948 came from a trashy poem in which haunted fell to death from a cliff (notice the recurring theme :D) and became formally known as Jane Doe in a later sequel. John is John Doe, the dead guy in the same morgue but I think John Bull also is Jerry Baldy. I didn't know who Casey Jones is but I like your interpretation. As far as the bloody stumps, they ain't pretty!

I assumed that John Bull is the loose reference to an Englishman. That's why I found the idea of 18th century John Bull donning a train drivers cap rather funny. Must read 1948

[Jerrybaldy]

haunted. its always good to continue 1948.
Delta. check 'love story' in haunted's thread. It all started there.
EA. thanks for commenting, I feared we were at odds.
Prince. I was in a great mood.
Hill. spot on. as always.
It was fun, thank you reliable mates.

[Haunted]

It sure was fun, thank you for the honor my dear drinking buddy. But I do want my legs back and my head and everything else. I want to look pretty in an open casket.