The Day We Burned Doug Richter
It was a summer day dressed in boredom
For four suburban Ohio boys
Looking for some excitement
In their banal lives from their banal toys
We took some old models of Navy ships
To a distant wooded stream
Armed with a box of blue tip matches
And mason jars filled with gasoline
We loaded up the ships
Full of the flammable fuel
And set them adrift in the stream
Thinking we were kind of cool
Then Jonsey had an idea
On how to create an eternal flame
As he slowly poured gas from his jar
Into a ship that towards him came
Before the words escaped our mouths
That his idea was a foolish one
The flame shot up the stream of gas
And his jar he quickly flung
Some landed on my bare legs
Singing adolescent hair before patted out
Then suddenly I was aware
Of the words Johnny started to shout
“Drop and roll, drop and roll,” he did scream
I knew his instructions weren’t intended for me
I looked up and saw a dancing figure of fire
Doug was aflamed from head to knee
I was headed towards him to make a tackle
When he dropped and rolled on his own
The fire was quickly doused
But he was already severely burned
Doug bravely walked home alone
To tell a story that didn’t implicate us
As we watched hidden from down the street
His parents take him to the hospital in a rush
We moped in guilt for hours that day
Before we decided we had to confess
So we made our way back to Doug’s house
And gave it our very best
Doug was going to be okay
A few scars and plenty of pain
His parents made us make a vow
Never to play with fire again
I wore jeans the rest of that summer
To hide my bare, red legs from my Mom and Dad
They never knew the part that I played
In this saga that turned out bad
As future summers came along
We accepted the boredom quite solemnly
Not wanting to repeat that day
We tried to escape the banality
Copyright © Joe Flach | Year Posted 2011
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