The phone ringing at 4am

my mother on the other line

"it's all gone, the house, everything" she tells me

every piece of furniture, every memory

She was asleep and would have continued to sleep

if it wasn't for the dog that the flames kept

For the ones she saved, the smoke almost took them.

I grew up the day the house caught fire,

the day that it burned for 10 hours

the day that I could have lost my mom

without telling her I loved her the night before