I suppose it was young
when it happened
when O’Leary’s cow
kicked over the lantern
and the city burned.
Our fifth-grade teacher said it happened
around the northside of the Loop.
Carl Sandberg called it
the City of Broad Shoulders
but stockyards were gone.
The teacher had us
read Sandberg’s poem in class.
She said the city lay on the shores
Of a lake as it lived like an ocean.
She had us read it again.
The city was just a few hours away
but loomed large in our minds.
Do your homework every day
she said. She said we could be
anything we wanted to be.
She said the city was rebuilt
into something greater after the fire.
Later, on a high school senior field trip
we went to the top of the Sears Tower
then the tallest skyscraper in the world.
A classmate stood next to me
and mused that all the buildings there
were taller than those in Davenport
our hometown.
The cityscape and the endless lake
were our world for the afternoon
while the wonders of the future
stretched ahead.
