Fire!

I slept and woke to pounding!
People outside screamed, "FIRE!"
We had no smoke detectors.
There were five of us in the house!!!

The smoke was thick.
Isn't that what usually kills people?
I was only 13.  Mom was drunk.
The others...my siblings.

We had just moved in here.
Our Aunt had evicted us.
Jimmy was hiding in Florida.
We were dead broke!

Now we might be dead!
I don't remember the first fire...
When I was 2 months old.
Mom had left me alone.

Neighbors saved me.
Mom was found at a bar.
BIG SURPRISE, RIGHT?
My father was at work.

I sort of remember the 2nd fire.
I was six and my sister was five.
Our bedroom burst into flames...
defective space heater!

My sister was burned...
...her arm was beet red.
We moved to Pennsylvania...
so mom didn't go to jail.

She wasn't home that time either!
My sister healed and another eviction...
we moved back to Buffalo.
Fires are scary as shit!

Another fire happened when
I was in foster care.  I never
got the full story.  Three versions...
Bo & matches, Sissy & candles...

Mom & cigarettes - most likely!
I rolled off my blanket...no beds again...
My sister wasn't on hers. No one in the bathroom.  
No Bo! No Mom! No Sissy! No Barbie!

I opened my window to cool fresh air!
I saw people gathered and I climbed out
and walked toward them.  Sirens in the distance.
I saw my family.  I heard whispers...

Bo: "Look, Paula! She's not dead!
Sissy: "Momma!  You said she was dead
and to leave her body!  Mom: "Shit!"
Barbie (worst sister): "Can we toss her back in?"

I sit here watching news on my phone of the horrible fires in California. I pray for Dick Van Dyke and James Woods and the others whose insurance was canceled just a few months ago - they just lost so much!!!