after Isabel's poem : "They Couldn't Salvage Anything"

They Couldn't Salvage Anything
A house burning
is a home on fire.

“a house burning is a home on fire”

we flee
clinging what we could carry,
the heat chasing our backs.

your room
the flames seize with clenched fists,
releasing singed black ashes.

unsatisfied
the fire licks your children's rooms
too, no safe space left unscathed.

from a safer
distance, we count our heads.
"all safe. no, wait - ". we count again.

father demands
"where is she?"
at the neighbors'. across the street. 
out for a drive. or at the office, certainly. 
the crumpled wood and blackened bricks sit silent.
 so sister says, "we don't know".