House Fire

There’s an ineluctable,
and at the same time
fugitive intimacy
in watching your own house
burn down on videotape.

Strangers in helmets
smashing windows with
axes: the most obvious
analogy (so let’s skip that)
would be with rape.

No. This is even more
impersonal; let it seem odd.
Here’s a monitor-full
of what the actuaries mean
by an act of God.