Ear to the Ground
“The engine never made a sound!”
—His terminal thought, as he looked round.
That crossing place he knew so well,
resounded to his final knell.
On the scene, there was no sign;
with dread we wandered down the line.
Speck by fleck, the bits got bigger,
strips of fat, a shoe, a finger...
-
...Upon the sleeper, then we came,
shattered body, scattered brain...
-
...Back down the track as I contend,
what words to give his statue’d friend?
The copper’s boot, with horror drole
had stuck, a pinna, to its sole.
Though for him it was no joke,
that Death had spread his crimson cloak;
“It’s too late now!” I did expound,
“To put your ear to the ground.”
(2013)
This really happened!
...still tweaking punctuation and layout:)
a 'knell' ; The sound of a bell, esp. when rung solemnly for a death or funeral, macabre analogy of the sound of impact
the 'pinna' is the visible outer part of the ear - one got stuck to my colleagues foot at the scene of an accidental rail death in North London -
death's 'crimson cloak' is an analogy of the bloody scene.
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