July 13, 1973
Salvation never arrived.
The Pullman Boxcar Factory burned all night
as my family watched so mesmerized
by the leap and dance of flames reaching 8 stories high,
brick and wood glowing deep within in mounds of red skeletons.
Even the firemen stood back in awe,
spraying water on the inferno in a heated infatuation
until the last rib cage collapsed
into 4 square blocks of glowing embers
to a silent shout of Hallelujah.
Poem by Steve Crowley
Steve spent his summers growing up in his grandparents’ 20-acre forest just south of Michigan City, Indiana