An alarm was the first thing to greet me this morning
flashing lights and a woman’s voice
telling me calmly to walk through the fire
out to the cold autumn air
and the crunchy color-turned leaves that
covered a dozen smoldering cigarette butts

How come there’s no gradient between
the brisk and the burning
the flint and the tinder
one’s confinement and escape
the labor required to live a life
and the labor required to survive it.

An alarm was the first thing to greet me this morning
and, really,

that just felt normal.