The report came out today
No fires, it said
Too much risk of a much larger blaze
Not a candle is lit
Even the little ones sidle away
To avoid the heat they eschew the light
Then the smoke appears
The observant would have noticed long before
Everything waits for the flame.
May 24, 2012
May 24, 2012 at 9:52 PM UTC
The report came out today
No fires, it said
Too much risk of a much larger blaze
Not a candle is lit
Even the little ones sidle away
To avoid the heat they eschew the light
Then the smoke appears
The observant would have noticed long before
Everything waits for the flame.
The forest fire metaphor is simply a trench coat over my emotional nakedness. At a very angsty teenagery part of my life, my parents were on the brink of an extremely volatile divorce. One that would have been en event horizon for me. It would have changed a lot about me, but it didn't. It was the waiting that was the hardest part.
This poem is free-form, but much more difficult to write than a strictly structured poem. I went for simplicity- only one layer over my intended meaning, simply to preserve some privacy. I hope that the simplicity allowed readers to apply their own meaning.
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