The Ogre Strikes Again

I saw this from the hill high
over there behind the mist,
just before the graying future.
I saw him gnash his teeth
and from his jaws drop
a long rollling tongue,
blistering to smash
the people of the valley.
In one flash it burned us-
deep, inside our chests-
in a place where our laughs are trapped.
I saw all of this, and no one else did-
in one second flattened-
before he lifted his terrible tongue,
leaving us green and cold and new.
 

Mary Duane