My bit of the church fire
It started with a ring
Oh no, I'm not getting it
It's the morning, it's our day off
But it was persistent
Fire, fire it said
So we had to pay attention
Driving in, how bad is it anyway?
Some of the mysterious forest of outbuildings.
When we got there, a crowd scene!
Board members and children
Cameramen and men in suits
And isn't that beam still smoking over there?
I joined my camera to the rest
Standing bricks, burned roofs
A pile of rubble on the sidewalk
A melted plastic children's swing.
What are we doing? A beam could fall
A wall collapse, these four ruins
have children running through them
Wait. Are we in authority here?
The Board went to handle things
I was left to clear out
Excuse me, your child should not be here
And you've had long enough to film the place.
I guarded the gate, three-headed Cerberus
Answering reporters and parents and
the vultures hovering in sight of a sale
those men in suits were only salesmen.
A new padlock replaced me
And I slipped outside
They were lining up for interviews
No, Ma'am, I wasn't here when it happened
For the rest of the day I answered phones
And neatly typed everything down
Can't stop the event
But we can organize the aftermath
Arson was another matter
The Fire Department found gasoline
Does arson, like lightning, not strike twice?
That's what we decided to believe.
I didn't think it was much, really
Insurance was on the way
We found new space for the preschool
How hard should we ask for donations?
But now, weeks later
I still see emergency meetings
And the charred boards are still there
Nothing magically regrowing by itself
An absence can be as real as a presence
As stubbornly there as a brick wall
These brick walls will stand empty and charred
Until, just as stubbornly, we fill them again.
Copyright 1999 Rich Puchalsky
E-mail: rpuchalsky@worldnet.att.net
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Last modified: Jan 30, 02000