LAST RITES

by Susan P. Blevins

Night is the hunter of lonely souls

no place lonelier than shuttered city

in the small hours

Melancholy strains of Eric Satie seep out of

ill-fitting windows onto cold wet

city street

A sleepless soul sinking deeper

into hopelessness with each

despairing note

Homeless woman pauses to listen

shuffling feet interrupt their journey to

final destination

Jealously she drags her

piece of hard-won cardboard behind her,

peering over her shoulder at shifting shadows

The soft sad music reminds her of days long gone

when she had roof and food and

warm clothes

Even a piano

All gone now, victim of a heartless political

system which beggared her with medical costs

when mortal illness struck

She lost it all to pay her bills

and now the cancer holds her in its

final death grip

She has a place she has come to like

and carefully lays out her cardboard bed

the last rites

She places her weary body on cold

wet city street, and surrenders

her final possession

* * * * *

"Last Rites" was first published in Mused BellaOnline Literary Review.