The Vision
by Gregory E. Lucas
Between the vision of the horse-drawn carriage
she sees near death and her first cries from the crib
burn the decades of her lifetime’s passage –
mere ashes in her last seconds left to live.
Like a wild hare that runs through the fields,
her heart runs wild above her aching ribs
while on darkened clouds that spin like pinwheels
the pair of flaming horses pound their hooves.
Thunder resounds, joins nearby church bells’ peals.
Seen in a flash, the splendor of her youth;
gone in a flicker, the wisdom of her age.
The carriage stops. She shudders with pain too acute
to bear. Her soul and body disengage;
and then she rises, toward spheres far and strange.
Gregory E. Lucas writes fiction and poetry. His short short
stories and poems have appeared in many magazines such as
The Horror Zine, Pif, The Ekphrastic Review, Yellow
Mama, and Blue Unicorn.
74