CATALYST POETRY by Mandy E. Robinson
in your bath?” I looked aghast and began to laugh. “Relax enjoy I’ll go make supper” The frying pans worked but could I slow my racing heart to just a flutter? Sliding back under bubbles to rest my head on a cushion of air My mind observing what lay below me just right there! Beginning now to absorb the rising candle flames dancing high Amidst the branches of ivy leaves that caught my eye. Casting shadows aloft and all around Subservient noise, for there was no sound. Mesmerised, entranced I cannot deny But wait …. What …. Am I about fry? For a second or two in sheer disbelief I am unable to function Has my life reached the final and eternal junction? “Brenda!! “ I screamed in guttural panic She rushes in perhaps thinking this girls manic. The ivy has caught fire, consuming leaves, branches, tiles climbing higher and higher “Oh my gosh what do we do?” She searches for rescue, but from who? The flames lap and play and wildly devour To render ruin if this is our final hour. In my mind I hear please don’t use the bath water For I know that the chemicals will exacerbate the slaughter. Too late, she reaches in, cups her hands and without caution scoops and tosses the bath water up the wall of fire The straights we are in have now become much more dire. I stand up clothed and dripping with bubbles “Move aside,” she yells forcefully desiring to end our troubles. She grabbed a cast iron frying pan much to my amaze Raised above her head and smashing down atop each candle to choke the blaze. The smell of charred foliage, the sight of blackened walls Grey smoke exiting to consume the halls. Broken glass strewn everywhere “I light the way by leading the way” —Mandy E. Robinson
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