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Certain Streets

a firefighter will not go

by Ibe Liebenberg

One is marked with flowers.

I do not drive down that street

or any of the others.

they put up pictures and crosses

to remind me to look away.

 

Some have nothing

because I pave over them in sleep.

Set up signs, do not enter,

closed forever.

 

If I forget, or am

forced to revisit,

I will look ahead,

stare at the center line,

unfocus my eyes and

make a memory to believe.

Tell myself I saved you.

About the Author

Ibe Liebenberg is a firefighter in Chico, California and a lecturer at Chico State University. He is a proud citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. He has been published in The Journal of Chickasaw History and Culture, Blue River Review, Watershed Review, THAT Literary Review, Chico State Universities Multicultural Echoes Literary Magazine, and forthcoming in The ThreePenny Review.

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