From the Wire Chief

 

Graveyard Trick

 

GRAVEYARD GHOST

from "Sage And High Iron," by Charles D. Dulin
Copyright 2021, by The Westbound Stage

Some ops don't stick to the graveyard trick
'Cause the graveyard trick she be;
They just don't blend with night's tail end,
But she's sure okay by me.
When it's dead out here and the goblins sneer
And a deep long silence reigns,
My thoughts take flight through a rhythmic night
To the realm of the old-time trains.

Old hogheads blast from the glamorous past
And call for a gob of green;
I watch them stop, then an old Morse op
Steps into my phantom scene.
I look in vain, as he clears the train,
For a mill and a DS phone,
But he works my trick with an agate stick
And a fist that is all his own.

I search my heart for his counterpart,
But the wall clock cracks, "It's gone."
I am acting host to a graveyard ghost
Who will leave at the break of dawn.
But he's with me now and I hope, somehow,
As I sit with this long-loved gent,
That your bard will be as revered as he
When his last OS is sent.

                                                (Charles D. Dulin)