something felt off, watching a dog repeatedly chase
a red ball, across the park, not far from where
we met, wasn’t the dog so much as that ball
he pursued, caught, returned and thrown out again,

red hot as it flew overhead, each time
glowing brighter, gathering speed covered
a greater distance, I tried to concentrate
on the instructor leading us through
the familiar steps, ignore the increasing heat

how fast it spread, no warning, there should have
been a warning, what a red ball a dog chased
set off in my head, the short time it took
to go through the tai chi practice three times,
a whole town I’d never visited
burned to the ground