23rd March 2020

bright sunshine
Virgin broadband digging outside
constant jackhammers

© Rachel Green 2020

never carry wax tapers
across the plate cleaning area;
I'm talking etchings, here,
where the varnish from the etching tanks
is cleaned off with white spirits
and the heavy ink
swirls in a mass of turpentine.
We used tapers
to smoke the plates
picking out designs in steel, copper;
but the hot wax from my taper
ignited the turps;
set fire to the printing lab
and evacuated the whole art block.
Six hundred students
standing outside
watching the fire engines put the blaze out.
Yes, it was me.
Sorry.
It was an accident
and no,
I'm not an arsonist.

© Rachel Green 2020