Big Yellow Taxi

I wrote the poem on which the song at the end of this post is based when Notre Dame was actually burning. The song was written in May, 2020. I changed the words in spots. The first line became “my heart” paused because I realize there were people in places like Yemen didn’t care much about a burning cathedral in France. Also, the entire world hasn’t dismissed God, so that line became about France, a very secular country. I also deleted a portion because there’s a mood change in the second last stanza, and balancing the structure required fewer words prior. Posted by request.

The world paused as

Notre Dame burned, mourning

its grandeur, crumbling

like shards of spun glass, forgetting

the toppled spires pointed

towards a God they had

long ago dismissed.

Parisians and tourists stood

in solemn worship of stone

and ancient wood.

“Our Lady,” monument to

white male creativity:

though neither, her

damaged beauty left

me bereft as they.

My cathedral burns like

candle wax, each new

ache and wrinkle a

shortening of the

wick, while my fragrance

wafts then dissipates.

Democracy had no

assumed expiration.

Lit by careless

matches, ancient timbers and lofty

towers fall to ash behind a

facade of stone.

Copyright 2019