There were four of us in the garden, <br />which overlooked a valley below. <br />The sunset was moving across the sky, <br />as the songs of twilight could be heard, <br />then a siren made us look around. <br />There below us within a grove of trees, <br />a spiral of smoke rose to meet the sky. <br />The house within the grove was burning fiercely; <br />its glow could be seen by us on higher ground, <br />but not by those on the lower ground. <br />We sat and watch in fascination <br />as there was little we could do. <br />Because the house was well hidden from the road, <br />the fire department missed it too. <br />Eventually when they reached the house, t <br />he occupants had perished in the flames. <br /> <br />Therefore, begins the story <br />I have never been able to explain. <br />A year went by and the charred ruins remained. <br />Nothing was ever built on the spot <br />nor the ground ever reclaimed. <br />The only monument that was left there <br />was the charred black timber on the ground. <br /> <br />My friends and I were playing <br />as we usually did in the garden, <br />overlooking the valley below <br />when a silence seem to engulf us. <br />In the distance, the mournful wail of a siren <br />broke the stillness there. <br />Looking down into the valley <br />we were amazed at what we saw, <br />a spiral of smoke reaching to the sky <br />within the grove of trees where the house used to be <br />from a burning building that was no longer there, <br />exactly how we had witnessed it a year before. <br />For an hour, we watched fascinated, <br />until the images we saw began to fade. <br />Did it all play back for some Anniversary, <br />or were our minds jut playing tricks on us all? <br />The question still bothers me <br />over fifty years from that day. <br />I will never know the truth, <br />and the mystery will always stay a mystery.<br /><br />David Harris<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/strange-but-true-1-the-burning-house/
