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Miranda's Ghost

The Souther farm stood back, a long way back 
from the road called Joe Long Arm.
The house was low and squat and huddled on the hill 
and it had laid there for eighty years.
Now the wind thrummed hard around the house
While the outside cellar door swung free. 
And the light bright windows shone upon the trees 
which were clawing and mauling at the walls.
And then  ...... the power..... went off.

Miranda watched her mother get some candles in the dark 
then they made the candle's light brighten up the room
and the storm became a hurricane, far too soon
While the trees around the house were wildly bent.
Her eldest now was riding home on the old school bus, 
but the place down the road where the bus stop was 
was  more than half a mile to the end of the Joe Long Road

The mother she was worried sick.
She had to meet the old school bus 
to bring her eldest safely home    
Could she leave her little child?      
She hugged the little four year old
and in a great and doubtful fear
she left her tiny daughter to the house.

The wind was rough and howling now
and the rain seemed horizontal,
For nearing half an hour she waited where the bus would stop 
and watched the tiles from an old barn sky off into the storm
and thought of the house and the little one. 
Then she broke and she ran full of fear. 
The wind at her front then pushing at her back
the air in a whirl like her mind. 

She burst into the house and found Miranda
not sobbing anymore. as she sat quite still
in the middle of the floor.  Her mother held her tightly
and between the drying sobs. She whispered to her mum

“The house was shaking 
And it frightened me a lot.
but then the floor flew right up to me
and I cried and I was very scared
Then the lady came behind. 
she touched my shoulder gently. 
and I didn't feel so frightened anymore.
I never saw the lady but then the lady said,
Your mummy she is coming up the hill” 

And there it ends, such a little thing
but it points to  a whole lot  more
and who can say just what it means 
if meaning is there at all,
but to me it says that kindness 
is on the other side of death
and that life here is not the end,
there's still much more to go.

And it says be aware of outside cellar doors 
and the joints of the floorboards in the floor,
and  the  funny things that can happen
that lets the wind  storm lift the carpet from the floor.

And too, oh such a lot of thanks and more
to the driver of the bus 
who took every single child to their door.

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