After The Fire Poem by Connie Webb

Only days after Mom leaving drunken Dad
We all had to get up
In the middle of the night
And run down the back stairs
On the outside of the old apartment building -
All of us just little kids
In our pajamas
Watching the big blaze in the sky.

“We saved everyone.
No one was hurt in this, ”
Exclaimed the fireman.

We lost all our belongings
And I didn’t know where my two kittens were.
That doesn’t hurt?

“Well, we are all alive,
That’s what counts.”
Mother said as I saw her wipe tears.
That doesn’t hurt?

We went to Grandma’s that night
Mother said, “We upset Grandma.
Grandma is old and needs her rest.
She can’t have four kids running around.
What am I going to do? ” she cried.
That doesn’t hurt?

And the words
“No one was hurt in this”
Ran through my mind
As I cried myself to sleep
Without my two kittens
Wondering what we would all do
To start all over again
And to not hurt anymore.