reunion in the rain

when you're lost in the rain in a back road in tennessee on christmas eve in nineteen forty-three and you see a light in the trees just up ahead and you wonder if you really wouldn't be better off dead and you push through the broken general store screen door the first thing you see is a leg sticking out on the floor and pappy looks up with a smile in his whiskers white and asks if it ain't just been one hell of a night this young lady here came at me with a knife it was all i could do to snuff out her miserable life excuse me sir while i drag her carcass outdoors as soon as i do my time is entirely yours you know you were here before in another life on the run with sheriff john brown's brand new young wife yes you escaped that time - escaped too well did you really think they forgot you down in hell? your eyes adjust to the smoky dismal scene lit by a single lamp of kerosene there's a knife on the counter, a bible and a magazine you take a step closer - and can't hold back a scream it's her on the cover - so dead yet so alive you left her in laredo in nineteen and thirty-five and her face you've carried since in your shrinking soul like an endlessly burning diamond - or piece of coal the magazine falls from your hand to the sawdust floor a sudden wind blows through the opening door it's over now - you know you're finally beat you hear pappy say, jeff, i've got someone here i'd like you to meet...