Majestic and detached

Harvest

The young woman is inconsolable,
there on the sidewalk shuddering by
the front of her clean white compact.
Her young companion seated beside
her lost as to what to do as the officer
keeps stolid vigil a few yards away.

In the street, a white-sheeted form
lies motionless, an interminable still-
ness only such quietus confers upon
the newly deceased. Above the flashing
emergency lights and onlookers hushed
as though deprived of oxygen, the
full moon rises, majestic and detached,
pulling sheet-white light up behind it.

Joseph Gallo
September 13, 2011