Area 52

The strangest thing she ever saw was her face

in the polished fender distorted.

The strangest thing I'd ever seen

half beneath the car that would end her

a girl I knew lying dead in the street

or off a bridge that stranger's body self-tossed

first responders milling when I was 24

or his bullet wound not visible

the victim under a wrinkled sheet

on a gurney in a mortuary backroom

or later naked high in winter trees

arms aloft in triumph over the torn

the birth of a week-long spirit lingering

by my sick old man hale for once

or scrubbed and made up him prone

in a chapel his false teeth gleaming

awaiting a greeting from some Beyond.

The strangest thing I ever saw was myself in a mirror

                                                             - J. O'Brien