The Road To Perdition, Quilted Wings, Verse Iii Poem by Captain Cur

I thought I saw her falling
while I was harvesting in the cornfield.

I was alone,
my wife was dead,
and I was in despair.
I got off the tractor
and found her lying on the dirt.

She was naked and had wings.

This could not be real,
just like when I would think
my wife was setting the table.

I picked her up and carried her to the house.
Her wings were badly damaged.
I laid her in the guest bed.
It had not been used in years.

I covered her and sat and waited.

When she awoke she said,
"Teach me the ways of the flesh."

She stayed for sixty days.

I asked her why she had to go.
She said; "I must find my place in the world."

Each evening after prayers,
I would go to my bedroom
and think of my wife on the bed
and remember these words spoken
in her soft melodic voice;
"I want to be one with your flesh."

I would take my gun,
empty the chambers,
press it to my temple
and pull the trigger.

I was trying to forget.

I knew one night
I would forget to empty the chamber.

The angel left with nothing.

I used to bring her the feathers
to her wings when they fell off.
When they were completely gone
I tended the open wounds on her back.

I thought about the feathers.

I once showed her a large chest
that contained things belonging to my wife.
I had given everything away
and it sat empty, like me.

I opened it.

She had knitted her feathers into a large quilt.
She left me a note, it read, "Forget."

After prayers, I would lie under the quilt
and forget about the gun.