* — October 26, 2017
Teresa Narey — June 1959, Orwigsburg, PA
Photo by Chloe Elizabeth

Every time we pass the red church
I think about it.
 
Heads, legs—
bodies scattered everywhere
 
on rain-slicked Route 122
after the propane tank exploded.
 
A ball of fire rolled hundreds of feet.
The spared:
 
85 children on a school bus
a state trooper who ducked under his dashboard
 
the tank, now a drain pipe, on Riegel Dairy Farm.

Originally published in No Tokens Issue No. 1. View full issue & more.
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Teresa Narey has an MFA in creative writing from Chatham University. Her poetry has appeared in Misfit Magazine, No Tokens, Pittsburgh City Paper, and Wicked Alice. She is a 2014 fellow of the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project. She is a native of Pottsville, PA.