Fire Safety

What one thing would I save

If my home, my house

Was completely engulfed in flames?

I want to say my Memaw’s Bible:

Her copy of King James.

But her voice

It calls to me,

And the modesty, that I keep quietly locked inside of me,

Keeps telling me,

This

That I’m telling you,

And it’s

Compelling me,

To tell the truth,

And so

Honestly,

Depending inherently on the severity,

Or if I

Would even feel inclined…

Go running back inside

My fiery house for anything…

Because

If I went in there and died,

Then where would I be?

I hear dead is not as glamorous as they make it seem

On the radio box or on

The movie screen.

Yeah,

There were all those nice people

Who attended my wake

And the others who came

And said goodbye to me, at my grave

And yeah,

There’s that pretty rock that they had carved

For all to see,

Telling the world of my vanity

And the bane of being a sex-symbol at the young age of 23.

But then, after that,

When they’re all gone I’ll be

Left to spend the rest of time alone

Reciting lines

From my long forgotten eulogy.

So If I

Am to be honest,

And in lieu of sounding vain,

I would

Accept the things in life

I cannot change,

Letting what burns

Burn,

And keeping only

That which may or may not

Remain.