Brian Johnston Poet Blank verse

For Now, the Chimney Stands

In the ashes of a home
Remains a stone fireplace
That still stands against the sky
Decaying at its own pace
Earth, water, and wind 
Now its only adversaries, 
Unless you add time to the mix.

It marks the place
Where once humans lived, 
Like a cross without arms, 
A fragment of a tombstone
Is the best it can muster, 
The once cheerful warmth of its heart.
Indistinguishable from ambient air.

At one time a barn was here too! 
But signaling its weariness
By leaning too hard toward the future
As if to brace itself  for the final onslaught, 
It won its own release, 
Rough hewn planks stripped away, 
Finding temporary lives elsewhere.
 
Stone walls that once 
Sheltered whole towns 
From marauding hordes
Have their own plans
For reincarnation, 
Migrating, as it were, 
To patios and garden pools.

All is change my love, 
Everything we hold dear
Vanishes and then reappears, 
Briefly, in other bedrooms, 
Like warmth from a fireplace…
Only the stars in lover's eyes
Remain the same, until they change.

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