Poem 220

More fire – and with a similar ‘clapping hands’ image to Poem 215 though this was written years earlier in 1982 as one of the ‘sixty poems’ and at the height of my rhyming phase …

Fiery Stair

How about some light over here
some light for the sake of my friend
balanced on the burning ladder
he can't see how far to the end

he's in a bad way nurse you see him
groping and choking in the dark
he can't see hope above or below him
as against him fly the sparks

how about some water bring some water
to cool this burning man
fire breathing in his lungs like bags
it could burst with a clap of its hands

here doctor take his wrist
it's up to you to pull him through
somehow make him look at us
make him see both me and you

but they come with no light or water
they bring only his suit and name
now he has climbed down into the fire
now he is curling inside the flame

I see you brush away ash of his loneliness
just one more death upon these stairs
you held one arm I the other
why didn't he know we were there?