Your Last Miracle: A Poem in the Fire

Written for the little ones in the disastrous fire that killed 56 people overnight in Hanoi.

My dear, the sky so high above
whatever in it, gods or fractured divine,
can't hear us from afar
we are curling in the smothering hole

the neighbor's cat stares at us
its emerald eyes our last sight before
the monstrous lights lick the peeled
window metal sheet rising like gnarled arms

we innocent prey tremble in the dark
the boiling floor bloats in yellow fumes
exhaling into our blurring eyes
the crumbling fate that we can't look

My dear, see them through my eyes
remember the emerald light that the cat
and its tender mercy on us before it leaped
away - from our hanging existence

You and me under this burdensome sky
too heavy that the clouds are about to cry
hold me tight sink into my beating heart
my ribcages carve your hiding vessel

On the other side, you will see many fish wiggle
your friends swing their tiny arms holding
a swarm of glittering scales, you among them
giggle and our river holds on to you in her arms

On the other side, close your eyes
your lips open, the fire tongue retreats
On the crackling asphalt,
the smoke sneaks through my vein

but it can't find you, you have left
for that river deep in my heart
you are swimming and catching fish
for the sun shines and water is kind

see me, my dear, it is September rains
again we will swim in our miracle
we leap, spring over

off this scorching ground.