When Tumnus Came From Narnia

When Tumnus Came From Narnia
© Surazeus
2018 06 02

Leaning against the oak in city park,
Don smokes a cigarette of mute despair
and watches children on the play set shout
as if it were a fort under attack.

The little boy walks up to him and smiles,
hands him the feathered wing of a dead raven,
then runs away to sit on the chain swing
and wobble while other children swing high.

Don imagines he walks over to help
push the boy so he swings high to the sky,
then they talk and become friends so they meet
every weekend to toss a ball and talk.

Flipping the cigarette into dry dirt,
Don walks away while the boy watches him,
and strides past the bar without going in,
to the library glowing gold at dusk.

Car lights flash as they drive by on the street
while Don reads the epic Paradise Lost,
and pictures himself Adam in the Garden
working beside the beautiful blonde Eve.

Staring through the page of wind-scattered words,
Don remembers lying drunk on the couch
when his son reached up to fix the antenna
and pulled the glass tube that crushed his frail skull.

While his heart is mending well from the anguish,
Don sighs at shocking ache that stabs his soul
each time he sees children smile as they play,
fragile souls moving carefree through the world.

Driving home in the purple twilight zone,
Don imagines himself leaping forward quick
enough to stop the television tube,
but always blood from his brain splatters red.

Shadow flutters across the tree-lined road
and Don feels the car bump something alive,
so he slams the brakes, causing wheels to squeal,
then steps slowly to the lamp-lighted street.

He finds what looks like a small half-goat child
with furry legs and hooves, and two white horns
that grow spiraling from his curly hair,
so he kneels and touches its glowing face.

Two eyes, gold-green as old woods in sunlight
after rain, open and stare in his eyes,
then the goat-boy springs to his feet and laughs,
and dances clicking hooves around his car.

"Give me a ride in your magic chariot,"
the lithe Satyr with ancient eyes exclaims,
then leaps in the front seat and waits for him,
so Don drives the car through the neighborhood.

"My name is Tumnus," the Satyr explains,
"and I followed Lucy through door of light,
but she vanished in the mist between worlds,
then your chariot hit me in the bright light."

Don grins delighted while the Satyr chatters,
telling him about magic land of Narnia,
how the Lion King defeated the Ice Witch,
and reigned with justice for two thousand years.

Driving around the huge city all night,
Don shows Tumnus everything in our world,
computers, airplanes, and engines of cars,
then parks on bridge over the river at dawn.

While Don and Tumnus lean on the bridge rail,
watching sunlight gleaming over glass towers
of the city, two policemen appear,
so he introduces them to his friend.

"Tumnus is a carefree Satyr from Narnia,
and I showed him the wonders of our world,
but soon he will return to his own land
once we find the magic portal of light."

One policeman grabs his arms with both hands
and the other snaps handcuffs on his wrists,
while he struggles, surprised at his arrest,
and declares, "You are violating my rights."

Pointing to the Satyr, the police frowns,
"How strange you are that you would kill the boy
when you hit him, then put him in your car
and drive around as if he were still alive."

Staring at the dead boy on the bridge rail,
small face half-crushed where the car struck his head,
Don cries in shock that grief blinded his eyes,
and sobs in the back of the police car.