A Memory Turned to Soot | Teen Ink

A Memory Turned to Soot

August 30, 2011
By Noel.MCarlson66 GOLD, Waterford, Connecticut
Noel.MCarlson66 GOLD, Waterford, Connecticut
16 articles 1 photo 2 comments

Favorite Quote:
Things have to get worse before they get better.


I’ll always recall
that fatefull night
your sleek silver phone, buzzing
Your voice was sharp, worried, rushed
A misfit sound in the untouched night
I feigned sleep
but worry seeped out my mind
and into my pillow,
it felt wrong to be lying down when something
was so obviously wrong in the silence
Slippers beneath soft-satin pajamas crept down the ominous hall
walls and floors absent
in the pitch blackness
Piece of silver held to ear, muttering
I convince myself that I’d be ready for whatever news loomed ahead--but I could never have been prepared for what I was to face
You,
abandoning your vacation with us a week early;
hearing that the exact house I’d grown in—slept, ate, played in—
was engulfed in hues of red
and orange rage, miles away;
or that Grandpa had suffered large, angry bruises from shoving our one-ton pride-and-joy
out of the roaring garage
But I’m so thankful that the most important memory of that house was left unscathed—
You

The author's comments:
I wrote this after my grandparents house--the house I was raised in--had caught fire. The house and everyone survived, but the house was sold. It was my favorite place in the world.

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on Sep. 14 2011 at 11:48 am
CaptainFabulous GOLD, Gray Summit, Missouri
17 articles 0 photos 62 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Sometimes I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast" - Lewis Carroll

This is a very sad memory but the way you turned it into a poem is really amazing. You hit every detail of emotion while still saying whats happening. Great piece. Sad memory. Keep writing :D.