Four Apparitions o’er the Rio Grande
Laredo, Texas 1965
A red Aston Martin sped into the parking lot and stopped.
A curious figure exited the driver’s side and dropped.
A middle-aged man in western garb fell to his knees, weeping.
He rose and removed items, clutching them, as though for safekeeping.
No one saw the heartbroken stranger as he crossed to the park.
Possibly, he was invisible or hidden by the dark.
He walked to the riverside and sat himself upon a rock.
He brought a six-pack and a bottle to ease his writer’s block.
But he had no passion for writing, closed his journal and cried.
He had received the sad news that a former lover had died.
In the river was the Moon’s reflection as he sipped a beer
downed a long swig of Bourbon, shed his Lucchese boots and tears.
O’er shallow waters came ghostlike figures, shadows from his past.
Colleen, a redhead, dressed in green. Once his lover, she had passed.
He could hear the pipers playing and the steps of her dancing.
He recalled her feisty laugh and the taste of their romancing.
Then a new ghost, a Latin beauty in a Flamenco gown.
A vision in red, stomping, clapping hands, and whirling around.
Her name was Maya, they had met in a bar in San Juan.
He had gotten stabbed protecting her. She loved like a demon.
The Moon presented Angie, a Southern girl, dressed in all-black.
She wanted him to go with her to Nashville. He turned his back.
He lost her because his career seemed more important to him.
In truth, he lost her because there was no greater fool than him.
As a mist formed over the river a new ghost was revealed.
A black-haired girl in a white jumpsuit, waiting at an airfield.
A thrill seeker, a sky jumper, waiting with her parachute
but a deadly disease took her life before it could take root.
The four ghosts reappeared and lifted him into the unreal.
They brought him skyward ‘til his body became ethereal.
For days his car sat in the lot until police were dispatched.
Someone found his boots and journal. The police got a name match.
His family were notified, but no one had heard from him.
He’s been missing ever since but is keeping an eye on them.
Love is like a flowing river. It can dry up over time.