A horrific blaze
Engulfed my home
Reducing my life
To ashes and dust
Those ashes were once
Things that meant the world to me;
Memories of childhood, now
Reduced to cinders.
In the smoky haze
I search frantically
But all I can see are embers
Part of a horrific design;
Burnt pictures lying everywhere
Pieces of my childhood lost
Half burnt faces lie around the floor
Smiling no more
The fire lay waste
To all my belongings
They were simply objects, insignificant
Never meant to last –
Like the pieces of broken glass
Now crumbling beneath my feet
They were made to be destroyed
They were made to be replaced
But in the blaze that night
I lost something more
That I could not find in the ashes;
It was irreplaceable;
And more than just my belongings,
Much more than memories,
I lost something dearer –
A part of me.
Mihir Kamat 