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In a world aflame
with states ablaze
whole forests and
city blocks burning
my car going up
is next to nothing.
I feel the nothing
of flames and smoke,
I smell the nothing
of plastics and fabrics,
raging out of control,
the burning blackness
of it – till the windows
pop one at a time, till
the strain and stress of
it all seemed almost epic.
For a few seconds my
ten year old car is
the center of a small
universe – a driveway,
a street, a few neighbors.
There is a force and
beauty in its going.
This was the street.
This was its driveway.
These were the neighbors
who watched it come
and go and thought
very little of it at all.
Now they see it, feel
the heat of its going,
hear the hissing and
the popping, smell it,
and probably taste it.
This is center stage,
the center of awareness,
a lesson about endings.
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Comments (4)
July 27th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Wow, Jerry! Guess it’s time to get a new car. Just like it was time for me to get a new plumbing system.
My situationn wasn’t quite that dramatic though. I love the way you describe the excitement fire causes.
As tragic as it is, fire seems to draw people like “a moth to a flame” so to speak.
Ida
July 27th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
A powerful extension of the metaphor in a real experience—wow, indeed! Would that I were to go in such dramatic splendor, and have a Jerry there to memorialize the passage, and of finally being noticed, if but for a flash of fire and smoke! Thanks for another excellent poem—
art
July 27th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Thanks Ida and Art for the comments — they’re always appreciated. The fire happened on Thursday — the poem on Friday — it was one of those cases where something had to be done — so, so much like me, I wrote a poem. I have to admit that the car had far more meaning in my life than it should have — I couldn’t let its going pass without some note. Jerry
July 28th, 2008 at 3:25 am
Hello Jerry, very beautiful poem about something uncommon…Fire and excitement are indeed amazing. Thanks for the beautiful poem.
yann