After the Movie (The Fourth Reel)   When the last seat is empty and the ushers are gone, the fourth reel starts to unspool: a few townsfolk flicker back to life, rush to tell their neighbors all about the duel that left the bad guy face down on Main Street, the stranger mounting his horse, heading west, silhouetted against a red sunset.      The barkeep begins to clean up the mess in the saloon — broken chairs, blood, some teeth. The undertaker hitches up his mule. The coroner kicks the corpse and sighs — death means paperwork, people to be paid, rules to be followed out here on the frontier, where even villains have mothers who grieve their sons who’ve gone wrong, and widows who fear for their hungry, fatherless boys who leave home before they are men, boys who are scared but for some whiskey courage and a gun, in search of a sleepless stranger who stares at his fire and thinks about what he’s done.     © Michael Fleming Marlboro, Vermont August 2024