Contingency 5 and 6

So I lied. I didn't finish the one about Valerie and I will put that up. These were on my mind though. I promise to get back to other stuff non-poetry. I don't know who I'm promising. Blogger gods? The random Argentinian lad who is following this? Anyway. Here's these. I'm just about done with this series and then I have another short poem series called Handicaps that I'm working on.


Contingency #5: Missing

If you lose your house, get to the store
and buy the same doorbell.
Now stand in the middle of a yard
that looks like your yard on a street
like your street ringing it.
To learn you never lost it,
you abandoned it.
Everyday. With every step.


Contingency #6: Escape

If your house is on fire, the question isn’t:
“What would you save?” but “How fast is it burning?”
If the inferno comes quick enough to burn the beams,
then leave, leave it all to ash.
Maybe if the blaze is just a bit glaring,
centered at the dining table, loud in the living rooms
you’ll be safest sneaking out a window,
carrying as much as you think you can take.
If it’s just singeing, blind to you, melting
the soles a little when you walk by its source
on the couch or standing at the sink,
see if it flares when you walk out the front door.
When it’s just a campfire at your back,
you’ll have room to edge out the big stuff,
jack be nimble yourself for a long while,
keeping your head down beneath the smoke.
And maybe if the fire is just an ember
a flame’s egg hiding in the walls,
if we mostly just smell it all our lives,
maybe we’ll all make it out.