Crackling and burning,
The flames pull me in
And I almost
Forget
the biting cold in my toes.
My classmates and friends
Talking and laughing.
I can almost
Forget
The mask constricting my face.
The familiarity of burned marshmallows
And sticky fingers,
I can almost
Forget
The weight of lives
And the stress
To protect
From an invisible killer.
We line up to take a photo,
Falling through the crust
And I can almost
Forget
This new constricted feeling in my chest
of being near
too many people.
Suddenly
The birds in the distance
Remind me
Of spring.
And I realize I’ve almost
Forgotten
That life goes on,
And in time
Things will be back to normal
And we can
Forget
This year we lost.
But for me it isn’t entirely
Lost.
I stood by a crackling and burning fire,
Ate a s’more,
And took a picture with my friends.
Maybe this fire isn’t
The same as all the other fires.
But it started as a match,
burned up the scavenged kindling,
And a spare runaway newspaper.
It came from wood split by an axe
And drowned everyone in smoke.
Some things have changed,
But fire
is fire,
is fire.
And that I won’t
forget.
