the explosion

The Halifax Explosion
We were looking up into the trees that line the street. They are immense, but how old are they? We thought that they might have been planted when the houses were built, but how long ago was that? The previous owners said that this house was about 80 years old, but the roofers thought that it was more about 100. If so, it must have escaped the explosion.
The Halifax Explosion in 1917 leveled much of the city, but this street must have been spared. Then yesterday we saw a map of the devastation. It covered all this section of the city up to two blocks from here. These houses would have lost their windows and the young trees would have been stripped, but here we are living in the ever after.
My life has experienced a horrifying explosion, and while my windows may have been blown away and the leaves stripped from my branches, while I am wounded and bleeding, my life is going on, and I am learning to dance again.