House On Fire
We get on like a house on fire.
The blaze is cool,
and the engines are howling towards it.
A knot of spectators
has been neatly arranged
to applaud the unloading of hose.
The fire we get on like is a house.
It is full of detritus,
and as willing as any tinder.
Friends and relatives
have formed in a puzzle
to describe the triangular flames.
Like a house, to get on, we are a fire.
The price of the cinders
is the business of experts in arson.
Volunteer soldiers
are marching in nice formation
to mimic the pyrotechnics.
We are fire. We are house. I like you.
Witness combustion,
and follow the long thin fuse.
We kiss
in the sunlit porch
of the house which awaits us.