Flaming Windows

There are other ways
to come outside
the walls that have held you
so skillfully;

other ways to enter the world
you have watched
from inside for so long,
sure

somehow that it was picture perfect,
that inside was so flawed, so
broken that you could never
find the beauty

others saw for so long.
There are other ways to say goodbye
than standing outside
watching the flames

you set yourself.

==========================

The picture was taken a couple of nights ago on a drive to Rupert, Vermont. It was (obviously) dark and very cold and I took it from inside my trusty Isuzu Trooper.

When I saw the results, at first it looked ruined because I didn’t hold it still enough, what with the Trooper’s engine idling. But then I looked at it differently and realized how much like flames the light looked. And then began thinking of a poem I could write around that image.

Tom