Night Fires
fire engines
whistles-lights-bells
flashing red all over the night trip
to rescue
dampen
contain
this combustible fallen world
this collapsed house of human endeavor
this baying at the moon
so much loss
grief cannot contain
the emptiness
bursting
exploding
in the widow
the widower
the parent
oh
is this the knowledge of good and evil
supplicant hands
melting
like the wings of Icarus
Dan Cuddy is currently an editor of the Loch Raven Review and in the past has been a contributing editor with the Maryland Poetry Review, and with Lite: Baltimore’s Literary Newspaper. He has been published in many small magazines over the years, e.g. NEBO, Antioch Review, Connecticut River Review and online at Praxilla, The Potomac, and L‘Allure des Mots. His book of poems “Handprint On The Window” was published by Three Conditions Press
Beautiful.