Fire in the night

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