Beyond parched eyelids
Incandescent eyes roll like marbles
Pressured breaths
Like a belabored woman
At curbs side
Her red Rolling Stone’s T-shirt
Ripped haphazardly
Emblazoned by a fire that
Wouldn’t give up
Soles of feet, raw
Soot laden
Twitching like a fish
Disaster rattles her
Glass fragments burrow in her scalp
Speak of the wrath of the fire’s fury
Squeezing her mother’s hand
Mouthing “I love you”
In a moment of release
A young fortress advances