Can smell the fire
and the water
sometimes imagine
if water has a smell
that remnant steamy scent
of memories
Never cared for the way things were
complained about everything too much
those problems real or imagined
after all those ranting years
they soured and wrinkled
angrier and more shaking of fists
the way age translates rage
menacing words only thought
gradually become spoken
with time’s lessening control
But then the fire came
out of nowhere and a fever
and everything got soaked down
through the longest hot night
cooling more and quelling
And in the morning
as if it had all been a dream
the birds began their joyful choir
a better place rising from ruin
Lanning Lee 