notes on arson

so the silence broken
by blood drives and
flying embers, flung
far from you in snow

Kingslake is Dresden
bound, choked in
ash and super-heated,
(mid tea-party)
till all the Dolls warped

await another call
from the bonded
city , dialling M(e)
for reason

all I want to say, when
Melbourne's burning, is
how I shouldn't
but I do
still

I'm afraid for '94, that
we can't evacuate to
Grandma's stuffing
gutters with
slick newspaper

the fire's there alright,
last night it jumped
the river - quiet, fleeting
and landed somewhere south
of Southern St, and me.