Scoundrels

I set my house on FAH - EHR to make the most of winter! Muh - hA - HA - HAH…!

And danced on glowing embers down the hollowed stairs

As wild Nestinari turned … Jafar - i? 

Treads are faintly crackling like my back, and the handrails did combust.

I’ve passed the hallway where your pictures used to be

And finally arrived, like from a tempered memory, in the azure nursery. 

Awake, my child - our house is burning, and the world still won’t stop turning.

Put on the clothes I, as your mother, laid out for you, and hurry up.

The flames, the smoke, and all the ashes are as impatient as your

Incensed heart, I - your father - lovingly filled with gasoline.

Take my hand, and let’s run together. You are ready for the great escape

To see the world beyond the stairs and the pictures on the wall.

Let’s say the words, cast the spells, and move together through the flames.

And now you’re back - the empty hallway, the fallen pictures burning on the stairs, 

With them, the time you saw your flowers in the garden bloom, oh, sunny child,

Or when you ate a bunch of pink tomatoes just for fun as breakfast.

Your flaming laughter is still ringing in my ears and moving through my feet 

So that your body suddenly is pushing at the door.

All the rubble - left behind. I'm going to live on the Outside. 

I see the people, and everything’s messy.

They have so many weird toys that can make you go “owwie.”

It’s bad. 

Remember the pictures and see them ahead.

Remember one step after the other, and next -

Follow the flames of the benign sun instead,

 And ever speak plainly, my child.