Fire in the night
By May Kwek
It was a perfectly ordinary evening
That faded to a perfectly ordinary night
Inside some were sleeping
Or reading by the lamp light
Then there came a perculiar smell
That we couldn’t quite place
It smelled to me like incense
But there was none in this place
In vain we searched
All around the room
Then turned to the window and found
Smoke obscuring the moon
Dimly we seemed to hear
The calls of “Fire!”
So we left our home quickly
To see what was the matter
But when we reached the lowest floor
It was a horror that we found
Flames that blazed out like a serpent’s tongue
Hell on earth not underground
Like a river of flames
It gushed out from the window
Flickering, leaping
As the frame melted and broke
And fell glowing red
On to the ground
Oh how some screamed
At that sight and sound
Rising ever higher
The flames vaporised to smoke
As black as the night that surrounded it
To choke out any hope
Then some sank like whispers
Closer to the ground
And I felt the heat of the fire
Though I was seven floors down
And around me a hoard had gathered
And we stared and stared
Others whipped up phones and cameras
And their hopes and fears shared
Little children clung on to their mothers
Their faces drawn with worry and fear
And their mothers knowing without words
Quietly drew them near
And the fire continued to blaze
A bright inferno in the night
And sent down showers of glass and metal
To all watching by its light
It was horrific, beastly and terrible
As was the scar it left
A woman crying silently
At the fire’s theft
Copyright © 2014 by May Kwek
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