Art: Lake Dock 2 by John Gregory Brown

The Burning House of God

I was traveling in broad daylight to the
darkest parts of a forest by the sea.
The airbnb full of elder cousins had become
too much to bear after too much champagne.
The road had no name and I stared at the road
as if I were hoping for something to happen.

A crushed detour sign
called for my attenchon.
An old church was alight nearby.

I approached cautiously
being Jewish myself, I had never actually been in one.
This was hardly a moment to think about that
I told myself.

A cough from the wreckage cut through air like a lifeguard’s airhorn.
As I paused, a roof beam fell next to me, exploding.
I looked at the flaming house of God.
I threw my jacket to a safe distance and
ran in and pulled out a young man.
What the hell?

I asked as he coughed out embers and ash.
I didn’t think it would catch so fast,
he responded.
You wanted to burn it down?

Yeah a bit of fun, burning things.
I thought about what I should do next.
That’s what I’m still thinking about.

About the author:

Otto Handler is a high school student that goes to Ruth Asawa School of the Arts in San Francisco. He writes short stories and poetry. He enjoys walking his dog when he needs to get inspired.

In the artist’s words:

Born and raised in New Orleans, John Gregory Brown is the author of the novels Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery; The Wrecked, Blessed Body of Shelton Lafleur; Audubon’s Watch; and A Thousand Miles from Nowhere. His honors include a Lyndhurst Prize, the Lillian Smith Award, the John Steinbeck Award, a Howard Foundation fellowship, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Book of the Year Award, and the Library of Virginia Book Award.

His visual art has been displayed in individual and group exhibitions and has appeared online and in print in Hayden’s Ferry Review, the New England Review, Flock, The Brooklyn Review, Gulf Stream, and elsewhere.

He is the Julia Jackson Nichols Professor of English at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, where he lives with his wife, the novelist Carrie Brown.