Meg's New Walls Poem by Donal Mahoney

Sue phones the hotel around midnight.
Two weeks earlier, at her request,
I took a room there.
Three bags,

half packed in the corner,
are ready to go back.
“There’s been a fire, ”
Sue says. I ask

“Is everyone all right? ”
They are. “How did it start? ”
“My matches, ” Sue says,
“and one of the kids.”

Weeks later, I visit the kids
at the house and find
the workmen have finished.
From the top stair, Meg shouts,

“Dad, come up and see my new walls! ”
Dad can’t come up there, I tell her.
“All right, ” Meg says, “I’ll bring
my new walls down to you.”