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Before the Brimstone |
Before the hail of fire
Before the clay sinks
down the walls, exposes
the brick beneath
Before the brick returns
to the earth
Before the torches
human-shaped
roll desperate in the dirt.
Before the meal: meat, cheese,
stone-fired bread.
Before the man who snatches
at his daughters’ thin arms
the woman
blocks them with the bulk
of her body
Before thinking it through
reaches her own hardened hand
into the mouth of the oven
pulls out a cord of wood
to hurl at him
skin, skeleton
frail in the face of the coming inferno
and burns the town down
copyright 2014
Michal
Lemberger |
