When Flames Come

When I wrote this poem I had Windsor Castle and The Glasgow School of Art in mind. Both are elegant brick buildings which caught on fire. Now looking at the poem in light of George Floyd's death, it reads as a metaphor for Law Enforcement in the US.



When Flames Come


remember what the mason
knows - it's tricky to be delicate

and durable both, to craft
a structure for the ages,

produce a puzzle
of stone and grace,

to assume fire resistance
when building with brick
and downplay exposed finishes,

dismiss the odds of facing intact walls
around a gutted core, watching dreams
stream like smoke through an open door.

It will happen again, it has happened before.



Marilyn Aschoff Mellor