On the Old East Side not far from St.
John Kanty's Church a team of handsome firemen sleep in bunks at the top of the station waiting to be awakened in the heat of the night for any good purpose or for the great benefit of the common man And as all of them stand on guard At a seconds notice they are ready to slide down the pole and board what has come to be known as the proverbial shiny red fire truck They are the real heroes that come when your house is burning and ablaze With the strength of professional athletes and the courage of American soldiers They do their duty with barely a flinch But if you ask them to tell you about the big one's They rarely do Why worry the family because they really don't have to know But I have often wondered how difficult it is to get so close to the flame I experienced it once But in comparative terms it was relatively small Still the experience left its inerasable mark Attempting to gather one's thoughts in a dreadful dream is hardly an enjoyable task Yet the art of escape may be the most important of all Still it may be impossible not to think of what could have taken place Blistered skin and black lungs are not what most people like to think about So when these thoughts begin to surface I try not to get in too deep Because if you dwell upon the negative you may end up just like Edgar Allan Poe eternally mired in a paranoid and delusional state So in my memory I think of the houses Because I know that they will last forever Created by the hands of Polish immigrants they were the bastion of a community that helped to make the city strong But time eclipses the human soul and with it reincarnation comes So I have chosen to think of the positive And appreciate what they have actually done For my mind remains rather healthy and although I have endured substantial suffering it is time to focus upon the positive Because without them I am not sure where I would be So as I sit and wait I am thankful for my precious life I know that I will continue to fight and despite a number of harrowing events my body is sound and my mind is yet unscathed