[return to Contents Page]

Bob Lucky

Maria Distasio, 10, Killed in the Great Molasses Flood of 1919

winter sun
glistening drops
from an icicle

I read your name on the list of fatalities and wonder how you died. Did rivets popping off the tank like bullets from a machine gun mow you down? Or were you crossing the street when two million gallons of molasses came barreling down on you at 35 miles an hour? There are so many ways to die. Who would have expected this to be one? I will never again say “slower than molasses in the winter time” without thinking of you.

daydream
the last of the light
caught in the blinds