“Now Your Ships are Burned”

“Now Your Ships are Burned”

what is lost
in a
fire
is gained in memories and ashes

no one was hurt,
but the old
Malmsteen house is gone now
done in by its 100-year old spruce and an electrical short
on the dog’s heating blanket

overlooking the Baltic port
and its decommissioned warships
among
snow white houses built up
against the Nordic harsh winters
and now a black pip
on a rolling hill
reduced to
rubble
a metal shed remains, scarred

the Malmsteens
cherished their parlor
room with family games of
Bildrullespelet
Happy Spider, Lützen

the parlor closet kept
family
secrets
full of old photo albums,
two medals from the war,
and American
board games
collected by their quiet father
a retired Navy man
who would
alight
at the rattle of Monopoly fake houses,
Twister’s plastic esters,
and Battleship’s sanitized
aircraft carriers

memories don’t
disappear
they
melt