A Halloween Tale
with apologies to Edgar
Once upon a midnight dreary, as I labored slow and weary,
To find the source of drips galore of oil upon my hangar floor.
From whence they fell I could not tell, perchance from under the nacelle?
Defeatedly, I slammed it shut, cracking my head upon the strut.
Defeatedly, I slammed it shut, cracking my head upon the strut.
•
Then suddenly, I hear a tapping, ’tis some colleague so gently rapping…?
Tapping at my hangar door…only that…nothing more.
•
Eagerly I beg him in, my skull beginning to slow its spin.
Still, no one appears within the door as I arise from off the floor.
“Enter!” I repeat, snapping, wanting to end the vexatious rapping.
The reply, though I could not discern, was a murmur, nay, a silent yearn…
•
“Water!” it pleads, and nothing more!
•
Why am I harassed so late here on October last?
Who disturbs my work upon this night, not answering my uptight invite?
Does someone take me as a fool, or might it be some winged ghoul.
That nests upon these very grounds, who visits on its ghostly rounds…
•
Seeking water, evermore?
•
Back to my work I now am turning, the brain within my skull is burning.
Yet again, I hear the tapping. Different now, ’tis water lapping!
•
Water? Against my hangar door?
•
As I gaze again into the night, what my eyes behold gives me a fright.
A ghostly amphib drifts through the fog, a derelict seeking its own epilogue.
It drifts, an untethered escapee, in search of some long-lost sea!
I try to cry but words stick in my throat, to see that SeaBee again afloat!
•
Alone it sat on that placid earth, silently awaiting delayed rebirth.
Suddenly, from the dark mist I feel it shutter! Two final words I hear it utter…
•
“Water,” it cries, “forevermore!”
•
Into that deep, moist darkness peering, long I stand there, squinting, hearing,
Searching for what once was there, now disappeared into thin air!
• • •
But silence now enfolds my chair, as I awake in disrepair.
I must have dreamt, for ’tis now dawn! But, when I gaze out…