A mother and her children
sleep on the second floor
in the suburban rooms
of their ticky tack home
owned but not paid for
the house catches fire
while the father is out
up the street
with a younger lover
(she who was born
after the house on fire house was built
but before the children were born)
the lovers hear
screaming sirens
& wonder:
ambulance, police car
& looking
they see the fire trucks out there
rushing screaming
& the mother wakes up
her house on fire
confused she rushes outside
as the fire trucks arrive
the children still inside
the lovers climax
the children die
the mother wonders why
she ran outside alone.

Some years later
the childless mother
tells a story:
she tried
she tried
to save the children
from the fire
while the father
made love
to his younger lover

Liars, liars
they all light fires.