Off I 97 north through Ohio,
A farmhouse was like a doll house on fire.
A family looked on, frozen where they stood,
As though they’d been arranged
By the hand of a child playing with fate.
As traffic slowed, time accelerated.
The conflagration grew life-size.
Firefighters fought back an inferno
And even the light of the fields
Was aflame with radiant treetops.
As traffic slowed, time accelerated.
The red glow on doll faces, a pink sunset,
It all became rekindled memory
Cast beyond farmhouse flames,
Forever fused, the fire’s reflection
In the window of my dad’s car
Burns on and on, as we drive north
Through fire into flammable snow.