ashes ashes Fire drills are no longer about fires. The school practices for "a situation." The youngest have no idea what that means. We adults do. We stand in the fall sunshine, marked out evenly across the green field and blue sky, discouraging whispering while also rejoicing in their casual silliness, their ignorance. The principal's voice: the ominous "situation" - our minds retrieve images we wish we could erase. If only we could return to the clean engulfing flames, a bad wire, a freak lightning strike, stop drop and roll. Every night Cedar sings ashes ashes and I see all those plagued children falling down. |