high school

i caught glimpse of death last night
his cold bones were gleaming white
his grinning face leered down at me
an omen of what was yet to come
of what could cease to be

A golden watch he held in his skeletal grasp
He opened the face and it creaked on its rusted clasp
He looked at my face and lifted back his tattered hood
and in his empty eyes I saw all my life, the bad and good.

He reached for me and touched my face
He whispered "not now, not this place"
and then he turned into the night and fled
and so ends my brief encounter with
the master of the dead.