And When the House Burned... • Joey Dean Hale

John Lennon and the Statue of Liberty
and Blues for Allah
And Old Style beer
and all the other
Posters on the walls
Snapped alive in rectangular flame
Then
gone
Before he might glimpse them
one last time
And the Nigrescent smoke
Dropped from the ceiling
like music and
Balloons for the millionth costumer
as the fire trucks rutted
The tender lawn
And volunteers watered down
his good old days
Scrapbooks in the back
of the foundered closet
An entire Stephen King collection
And when the roof caved
the sun fell
Laughing in hysterics
from behind clouds
Who just for spite
Refused to rain.


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Joey Dean Hale is a writer and musician in the St. Louis area. Since receiving his MFA from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale he has published several poems and stories. His most current story and song can both be found online in the August issue of Octave Magazine.