Wendy Galgan

    

   BURNING ANGELS: MARCH 25, 1911

 
  Women stand in windows, flames at their feet.
  Dark smoke builds to cover Washington Place.
  It’s raining children on Greene Street.
   
  The wooden ladders cannot bridge the great
  distance between the sidewalk and splintered casements.
  Women stand on ledges, flames at their feet.
   
  Hair streaming, coat smoking, a girl leaps,
  drops like a bolt of cloth with a soot-stained face.
  It’s raining children.  On Greene Street,
   
  men curse as women jump from killing heights
  and death-crazed horses fight their traces.
  Girls stand on ledges, flames at their feet.
   
  Rusted metal buckles, snaps.  Firemen weep
  as two flame-winged angels fall in a smoky embrace.
  It’s raining.  Children on Greene Street
   
  gaze at those impaled on iron fence spikes, at eight
  rows of bodies that fill sidewalk’s empty space.
  Girls stand in windows, flames at their feet.
  It’s raining children on Greene Street.

    
  (Originally posted April 27, 2016)

   
  To contact Wendy Galgan send an email to: wgalgan@sfc.edu