(2025)
As you look into the fireplace let me tell you a short story
There was a woman with a wide face and big eyes
A man who was a slender rake with long thighs
She dragged him from a burning train
Fought the smoke many thought her deranged
Clambered over and under the debris
With struggle and persistence, she found and pulled him free
He was out, no response, yet still breathed
Slowly exhausted she laid him on a back seat
Shutting a door careful to avoid his limp, hanging feet
These were wild times, no doctor, no healer, no bonesaw
Only a warm hearth, clean water and dawn
Big eyes red with fatigue she could not help but sleep
The fire crackled, slowed and hissed
Hand in hand mentally hoping for a hint
Do not fade love, we have a life yet to live for
Sweaty, anxious dreams and half awake in-betweens
Then, in the doorway he stood
She ran towards him blind to blood, she’d shed
The floor and the blankets soaked red
His skin warm and the sun bright
Despite it being a winter night
Neither breathed the cold winter air
The embrace of home, two no longer three
The hearth reduced to still ash with no heat