Ashes

by Barbara Brooks


            Our house is
                        burning, it has
                                    been a growing
                                                ember all this time
What has happened to us?

            Our home was
                        like an open
                                    door. At times
                                                we have walked
                                                            in alone but
mostly have entered together.

            Now the ember
                        is a flame;
                                    licking the foundation,
                                                climbing up walls,
                                                            spewing smoke out of
                                                                        a splintered window,
collapsing roof.

            The door is
                        gone, broken in
                                    by the fireman’s
                                                ax. I stood there
looking for you.

            But all I
                        see is a
                                    smoldering structure;
                                                water dripping from
                                                            the blackened beams.

* * * * *

Barbara Brooks, author of The Catbird Sang, A Shell to Return to the Sea, Water Colors chapbooks, is a member of Poet Fools. Her work has been accepted in Avalon Literary Review, Chagrin River Review, The Foundling Review, Blue Lake Review, Third Wednesday, Peregrine, Tar River Poetry, Silkworm among others.