Boom!
Rivets from the 50-foot distillery tank busted from the flimsy
metal sheets exploding with molasses onto Boston’s North End.
The two million gallon wave thrashed people
into billiards, freight cars, and stables.
Children who had once collected the seeping sucrose off the tank for
suckers were trapped under its girth and met their gooey graves.
Teamsters and librarians on their noonday lunches sitting in the balmy
climate were strangled by its syrupy brown glaze and swept under it like trash to a dustpan.
The trotting of horses through the city hauling goods came to a stop –
their hooves stuck to the street as bugs to flypaper.
Houses and stores didn’t go unscathed either – being wrenched from their
roots and ensnaring electrical poles, trucks, and the firehouse in its glutinous wake.
Twenty-one died and another 150 injured, but to this today
the air still lingers of the sweet smelling
molasses.
Arika Elizenberry is a native of Las Vegas, Nevada. She has been writing poetry for over ten years; some of her favorite writers are Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, and James Baldwin. Her work has appeared in the Silver Compass, Neon Dreams, Open Road Review, and East Coast Literary with forthcoming works in ZO Magazine, 300 Days of Sun, Blue Lyra Review, and Aspirations. She currently has an A.A. in Creative Writing and is working on her B.A.
