Charred dreams on the hillside Cicadas hush, the sky turns gray Photographs curl in the embers Memories drift like ash away I trace the outline of the porch light Ghost of a door that isn't there Your laughter echoes in the timber Cracking in the evening air And I still taste summer in the smoke Hear your footsteps in the cinders If home is where the heart should live Why do I feel it turning to splinters? Ashes of summer whisper my name But nothing answers back Just the wind and the flame Insurance checks on the table Numbers where a childhood stood Neighbors packed in borrowed trailers Hope weighed down by soot-stained wood I keep a box of melted silver Each spoon a tarnished lullaby Every night I polish silence Watch the black dust rise and fly And I still taste summer in the smoke Hear your footsteps in the cinders If home is where the heart should live Why do I feel it turning to splinters? Ashes of summer whisper my name But nothing answers back– Just the wind and the flame They'll rebuild, they say, stronger beams, safer codes But how do you measure the sound Of my mother calling us in for dinner Or the sap that bled from the old oak When we carved our names? I still taste summer in the smoke Feel your heartbeat in the embers Tell me, fire, will you remember The songs we sang in younger Decembers? Ashes of summer fall like snow Where do the children of flames go?