A Smothering Love

One day, I ran

into a burning home

where the flames were dancing

like trees, by the wind blown.

The room was like a furnace,

smelting everything within.

Appliances, clumps of molten masses. 

The table glowing and collapsing.

The love seat roared

like a thousand lions,

but not with passion this time.

Curtains evolved into shrouds of death,

while all around me

bulbs were exploding

from the amazing heat.

The wooden floor

a flaming red sea,

melting the very soles of my feet.

Up….. the…… stairs.

The bedrooms were billowing

smoke black and thick.

The rooms like Haedes,

and me……

listening above the crackling

for just one meager, precious sound.

(Come on sound tell me where to go)

I hold my breath,

staving off the attack

from the devilish death of smoke.

Searching the house

is all I know;

all I have to do.

Crawling, running, seeking,

avoiding crumpled embers.

Under children’s beds.

 
Finally!

I reach the blackened room,

which was once a happy place. 

Intense heat engulfs me

like the breath of the devil himself

I try to move swiftly

but feel my feet heavy as though stuck to the floor
From under a smoldering mattress

I see a hand outstretched.

My lungs fill

with life depleting smoke.

I take the small hand in mine

and run.

Yet ever so slowly,

I run

Covered in flames

like the Flash,

I run away from the heated grasp of the flames.

My lungs collapsing, in pain and anguish.

At last

We are free.

Free from the pain, the suffering, the intense searing heat

and choking smoke.

I am no Superhero,

but, just a father

rescuing

someone else’s son.

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Graham Bannister is a member of the group “League of Extraordinary Poets “ (LXP) in Barbados, where he also engages as a Spoken Word artist. He has been recognized with a 2012 NIFCA award for his prose.