A POEM - THE SURPRISE

THE SURPRISE
At one point there,
I woke up and had to take a shit.
I pulled on some pants,
thinking maybe I’d go out for a smoke afterwards.
But what was weird
was that while walking down the hallway
I smelled smoke, fire smoke.
I sniffed away at it
but couldn’t figure out
where that smell was coming from.
Then I passed a man in the hallway,
this dutch man I’d seen around.
He said to me,
“hey! Man! You’re on fire!”
I stared back at him, confused.
“no, really?”
“yes, yes! Look at your legs!”
And true enough,
I looked down at my pants
and they were on fire,
the flames licking at my knees.
“jesus,” I said, jogging to the shower,
“I didn’t see that one coming.”