Triangle Remembered: "IMAGINING THE HORSE"

Today being the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, I am going to push the limits of fair use by reprinting a second poem from Chris Llewellyn's magnificent Fragments from the Fire, a poetic reflection on the tragedy, first published in 1987 and now regrettably out of print. I urge FotM readers in the strongest possible terms to track a used copy down on the Internet. These two poems (the first is here) give only a taste of the power of the whole.


IMAGINING THE HORSE

Captain Meehan's Horse, Yale,
was the first to arrive on the scene.

My name is Yale. At first:
Hail of cinders.
Glass. Fire bells.
Falling bales and
timbers. Blood-smell.

Then:
Tarp-covered mounds.
Waterfalls from windows.
Hoses tangled in bundles.
Gutters red to fetlocks.

Night:
Searchlight.
Block and tackle.
Gray men in lines.
Stacks on wagons.

Journey:
Slow pull up Broadway
to Fourteenth to Fourth Avenue to
Twenty-third. Clanging. Wailing.
Twenty-sixth pier.

Dawn:
The Sun has dropped
her mares and foals.
Plentiful as flies.
Wrapped in rows.