Canary

On the fourteenth floor, Eloise
Stands astride the balcony
While all around
The inferno
How quick the inferno!
Rages.

Unbidden beneath the bedroom door
Smoke billows into the room
The green light gone
In the hallway
Like a canary in a cage.

How blue the world outside!
How glory fills the sky!
If only she could release the ledge
(For who can cling to this world for long?)
She would surrender herself
How thrilling she thought
To gamble herself away
It would be like falling in love
‘God Forgive!’, she would cry on the way down
He would grant her, she was sure
Besides, an angel might
Catch her and stand her on her feet.

The crackle of fire, relentless as sin
She could not bear her flesh
Be eaten by the flames
Remembering a phrase:
Tidy house, unruly mind
Whatever did it mean?

…A noise outside
The door comes in
A flash-light flooding grey
A hero in a crisis
Always risks his heart
A fireman asks
Anyone here?
ANYONE THERE!

The reply is scant
Death absent
For Eloise
Had already breathed
The breath of eternal life.