When Buildings Burn



When buildings burn,
We howl in anguish from a distance.
Thick smoke clouds fill the air, and the darkness lights up with flames that cloak the sky in a cruel warmth.

No one is comforted.

There is a fear of the unknown.

How daunting it can be to lose the world that you’ve called home!
As walls fall and trim fades to black, the question arises: is this burning building a lost dream?
 
The fireman says it was a small spark that tore the building apart from roof to foundation.
 
He points at crumbled walls and says, "Your foundation was weak from the start."
 
There are structures with sturdier roots.
 
As luck would have it, you get to start again.

About this poem

This poem represents the process of starting over after trauma. When a traumatic event takes place we often feel scared and displaced. Sometimes we are hopeless. Yet, there are moments when someone or something forces us to re-examine what we thought we knew and open our eyes to new possibilities.

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Written on February 21, 2023

Submitted by shakia7 on April 03, 2023

41 sec read
0

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXX X X XX X X X X
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 664
Words 137
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 3, 1, 1, 10

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    "When Buildings Burn" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/158924/when-buildings-burn>.

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