Ignite

A tall white chimney

On a high mountain stood,

In the dark of night, shining.

I read the sign beside it:

Years ago, a man in his youth

Had built a future there

Only to watch it burn to the ground.

Have you ever seen a man burn to the ground?

It's a terrifying thing to witness,

Stooped over the sepia hospital bed,

Face to face with his mother of 87 years,

I watched his skin ignite

And his flesh burn away,

Till all that was left was his naked spine,

In the dark of night shining.

Why did the house burn to the ground?

A telegram thrown like a torch in the mail:

CARRIAGE ACCIDENT STOP FIANCEE DEAD STOP

The man lit fire to his future with contempt,

And the past burned sepia against the sun.

As we left the hospital

The sun was setting on an era,

Igniting men like torches left to burn,

Till the moment dissolves into photograph

And we freeze:

In the dark of the past, shining.

Because when the black eyes of my grandmother

Met the eyes of my father for the very last time,

I thought I saw her smile,

A flicker of defiance against time and death

And all that they take from us.

She too was burned down to a single white line,

Alone in all the universe, but defiant still,

In the dark of death, smiling.