David Cameron

Alive

Duty. Orders given.

Day’s end death-watch

Dragging out like a

Tooth extraction.

Sleeping. That’s the story.

Slumped in guileless slumber.

Eyes sealed shut like the

Tomb we were guarding.

Did not see the welder’s torch

Cut the seal in white explosion.

Did not hear the air split wide

Intense in rippled brilliance.

Did not feel the vacuum void

When angels turned time inside out,

Leaving us as cross-wise pawns

Breathlessly believing.

David Cameron catches poems half-formed from an overheard off-hand comment or a surprising twist of phrase. He was a Presbyterian pastor for many years and ended his career directing a Meals on Wheels program in western North Carolina. He is on loan now to the area’s waterfalls and mountain trails.