Lady in Red

Through a lashed curtain
I visualised two doors.
For a heartbeat
They appeared frozen.

Suddenly, with a waft,
They explode,
Open.

A barrage of hurried,
Eager people erupt,
Like a coiled queue
On the first day
Of the Harrod's Sale.

The crowd washes
Past my rested form,
Like watching the tide's
Pre-determined path.

That is when I saw her...

The Lady in Red.
Her face;
So, familiar to me.

Like a reflection,
But different:
Out of time,
Technicoloured.

Within the commotion
She looked at me,
Moving in surreal
slow motion.

We both smiled...

...And I choked -
Choked on:
Shared recognition.

Within that instant...

Birth, Blood, Tears,
Love, Hate, Fears,
Joy, Touch, Bliss,
Death, Life, Kiss.
Shared the
Head
Of
a
.

^
Pin.

As we smiled
I became aware,
Of who and where I was.

The train in my chest
Tore away my happiness,
Reminding me of my grief
And raging river of pain.

Slowly I opened my eyes -
And wept,
For my mother
who had died
just last week.

As I lay there
propped up on pillows
I knew that,

Together we had smiled,
and shared our final:

Goodbye.

M. Moran
17.8.15

*Authors note: This was based on an event that was recounted to me. A daughter of a tenant told me of the vision she had moments before she awoke that morning. Her mother had passed away last week and the vision was of her mother in the 1980's, a younger lady in her 40's, fit and well and eager to move towards (she presumed) the pearly gates.

Rest in Peace, Joan