<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><p class="MsoNormal">The Spiral Stairway<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The spiral stairway<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">went nowhere,<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">though it once went<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">from ground floor to<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">second floor before<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">the wild fires that<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">taught them what<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">wild really felt like, <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">what fire really looked like,<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">when they evacuated <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">in the night, managed to<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">take only their cat, <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">her computer<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">and their car which took them <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">beyond the flames in the <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">forest bright <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">brought them to safety and the <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">memory of that spiral stairway <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">that conveyed them up and down <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">for decades with cat, with <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">computer and the sounds of the<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">forest now stilled by the fury <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">of the fire.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Jonah Raskin</p></body></html>