why bother decorating a burning home?

when breath turns to ash 🍁🤎🍂🕯

---

I.

High ceilings, ornate chandeliers hang,

Spiralling warm mahogany,  

Wooden toys, trinkets and frames,

frames of plastered smiles 

frames of the venerated, highly mourned.

Why bother decorating a burning home? 

When we are united in grief. 

II.

Scratched walls tallying counts 

Plastic pine donned in LEDs

These LEDs evoke joy 

A joy illuminating, cool,

The room grew grimmer as he retreated,

And the warmth is missing in the bright.

III.

A feast to the senses,

Gingerbread cookies and yule logs,

Oaken mead and chardonnay, 

The ones he meticulously guarded, 

We eat in eternal silence,

A quieter celebration. 

IV.

Extravagant Kintsugi vase, the ashes flow,

In the cerulean satin tides across the hall,

Moulding milk and cookies, 

A neatly scrawled note to Santa,

Melodious requiems,

Amidst the pile of hospital bills 

V.

These immaculate festooned walls, 

They hold the truth within, 

As tears trickle down,

Too mere to extinguish these flames, 

The room trembles in fear, 

Shattering dreams, glass ornaments.

VI.

The fireplace blazes, bright sparks ricochet,

Reminiscent of Diwali with him,

Multihued crackers, dreams are real,

What will a fireplace do, 

When this home is already burning down.

VII.

We clutch our hearts,

Onto the beachside yard,

Where the sun drips into the sea, 

Watching puffs of carbon in the clear sky,

Melted, desolate décor on the floor, 

Why bother decorating a burning home? 

If we haven’t moved on.

~ rumi