When The Fires Came, A Poem For Notre Dame Cathedral Poem by Jenny Kalahar

When the fires came
lighting up a city known for lights of beauty
terrorizing history in flames
billowing with smoke not made in heaven
we joined arms and bowed our heads in prayer
and raised our voices there
where the heat dried up our tears
Oh, when the fires came

And suddenly
from photos of the past
we could see what was being taken
from the future's faithful masses,
the searing inferno's ashes
were burning up what we were shown.
Yesterday's mementos
changed to documents of what had been
and when the fires came
those blessed artifacts would all be never more
never more …
when the fires came