Today they burned the house 
of the man who did not feed his horses;
their thin muscles barely holding to bone
as they patiently waited
for rescue.
 
The house was left
his dirty dishes to line its counters
while mummified cats fell from the attic
to the kitchen sink below ?
powdery remnants of his neglect.  
 
And the new owners gleeful
to see the rotting carcass of his memory 
go up in flames.  Its skeleton
now flickering lights in a cloudy sky
 
leaving only a pond full of polliwogs
and this lush grove of Iris.