Like Death During a Fire

She didn't dare stir
until footsteps fell no more.
To inhale each breath
seared her lungs like
a bloody steak at the spit, bloody
like the street she lie on.

A servant of God,
she prayed, her lips unmoving,
fearing the earth
below would swallow her
from the inside out.

Screams echoed,
leeching away at her psyche
as the last wall of the school fell
across the street, the last
of the fallen flags.
The smoking flames
scorched her soul,
hellfire in the name of discord.

Half breaths taken at most,
eyes retired bringing
about a Juliet sleep
to survive,
to see a tomorrow.