Tatum's True Travel Tales
catching the rare sight of...

A Vanishing Specter

 

From somewhere beyond
waved a magical wand
through the mist of a brisk morning ride,

Something happened that day
you just can't whisk away
which profoundly had me mystified.

I was out for a drive
on old route thirty-five,
having hardly a care in my mind,

when I saw pass me by,
from the side of my eye
something curious from not far behind,

an old car I’d not seen
since my years as a teen,
of a man who was friendly and wise;

My old neighbor and friend
Whom I cannot pretend
didn't bring sudden shock to my eyes.

He'd been long dead and gone
from the seventies on,
and I'd nearly forgotten the man.

til the silhouette driver,
and spooky arriver
appeared where the sighting began.

When I watched the ghost pass
as he stepped on the gas (?)
I thought he smiled, I couldn't tell.

The ghost drove his ride
from the unearthly side
just to bid me his final farewell.

He looked just the same,
then I saw his nickname
on the tag of his Florida car.

When his car passed me by,
I decided to try
catching up before he got too far.

He went over the hill,
and he vanished at will,
when I couldn't believe my own eyes!

The truth of it showed
just a clear stretch of road,
where we bid our unspoken “Good-byes”.