After Effects

Tragic occurrences tend to be sharper in memory
than those which provoke you to laugh from the belly.
Tragedy makes you stand up and take notice.
Comedy allows you to roll with the punches.

A lighting bolt out of the blue in 1850 Montana,
startled two horses hitched to a wagon,
heavy with furniture, maybe headed back East.
It had been wanting to rain for nearly a week.

Meanwhile, a child crossing the road with her mother,
the raggedy doll she carried, slipped the kid's grip.
Likewise, the mother failed to refrain the 5 year old
from turning around to retrieve the toy.

Thus, the elements of narrative align.
The flash, the horses startled, the driver thrown from his seat.
The thunderous horses run over the child.
And the rain comes down in torrents.

Some swear to have seen
on moonless nights,
a child in frontier dress,
holding a Raggedy Annie.

Midway between a convenience store
and a closed movie house, the apparition allewdly floats
on the outskirts of Billings, Montana, 2000 and 8.
What about you, you believe in ghosts?

I don't know that I believe.
If I did, I would not want to see one. Spooky events,
true or no, have a way of getting under your skin.
Witness what happened to Michael after Thriller.