Arlene Ang After the Fire Joe went blind. He quit smoking. The gauze over his eyes were black to him. His wife never made it. Voices prickled his burns, sucked his scabs. He called them hummingbats. Before the fire, he had built nectar feeders in the garden to attract birds. He liked watching them behind a glass. He never meant to get drunk. Never realized he'd never come out of the smoke. He wanted to say he was sorry. Instead he told another one of his light bulb jokes to an audience that wasn't exactly there. |