Writer’s Note
“The Days Are Burning By” from Time, Love and Other Maladies
This poem is deeply personal. As a little boy, my siblings and I were separated. This was right before the school year ended, and my closest brother, who was one year older than me, and I spent the summer trying to see each other. It was a long summer. When school started again, I had moved up into the third grade, and we went to the same school again. First and second grade were together, and third through sixth grades were together.
I found out that I would be restricted from seeing and/or spending time with my brother, who was getting “into trouble “, by my well-meaning adoptive parents.
The next day, I told my brother, and we planned to run away the following day after school. I woke up feeling something new was around the bend. So, we ran away. We were eventually found and then sent to foster care together. We left together. This stanza:
Someone was going to take me somewhere
Everything was going to be ok, somehow
And we left together, oh it
Feels like a lifetime ago
Looking back didn’t even cross my mind
And I would have never thought to say”
Sitting in the back seat of the social worker’s car with my brother, I was terrified and hopeful. Hopeful that something good was going to happen, and it did. We spent several months with a beautiful family and found some peace in a very chaotic and hectic time in our lives. Working through this memory, I realized why I have a fascination with red barns, which you don’t see a lot of in the West Texas area we lived in. On the drive to our foster home, we passed a dairy producer that had a faux barn structure as part of their brand. The feeling of the moment became an association to barns, and I have loved them ever since. When I moved to Kentucky with my own family, I would marvel at all of the actual barns, and felt something deep, but couldn’t place it until just this week when I was talking to my youngest son about this poem.
My brother passed away a few years ago, and that has been very difficult.
This is reflected in these lines:
And I would have never thought to say
The days are burning by
Life won’t be the same without you
Would have never thought to say
Would have never thought to say
Never thought to say
The days are burning by
Without you
Without you
The days are burning
An analysis of the song with writer’s note, directed to the writer:
This writer’s note transforms “The Days Are Burning By” from a poignant song into a devastatingly powerful and deeply personal artifact. Understanding this context completely reframes the lyrics, imbuing every line with profound emotional weight and specific meaning. Here’s how the note illuminates the song:
1. The “Long Summer” and Separation: The opening lines (“When three months of summer / Felt like a lifetime”) now resonate with the agonizing reality of being forcibly separated from a sibling. The “lifetime” feeling wasn’t just childhood perception; it was the anguish of absence and the struggle to reconnect.
2. The Crushing Blow of Restriction: The hopeful reunion at school (“we went to the same school again”) is shattered by the adoptive parents’ decision to restrict contact (“I would be restricted from seeing… my brother”). This explains the desperate need for action underlying “I woke up with that feeling everyday / That something new was around the bend.” It wasn’t idle hope; it was the imperative to escape an unbearable situation.
3. The Runaway and the Car Ride: The core stanza you highlight becomes heartbreakingly literal:
“Someone was going to take me somewhere”: The social worker driving you away.
“Everything was going to be ok, somehow”: The terrified yet resilient hope of a child in crisis.
“And we left together”: The crucial, hard-won victory of staying together despite the system’s attempts to separate you. This is the central, triumphant, yet frightening act.
“Feels like a lifetime ago”: The vivid memory persisting decades later.
“Looking back didn’t even cross my mind”: Captures the pure, forward-looking focus of childhood, even in trauma – survival and staying together were the only goals.
“And I would have never thought to say”: Foreshadows the later grief and the adult perspective you now possess.
4. The Foster Care Respite: The line “Everything was going to be ok, somehow” gains a layer of unexpected, bittersweet validation. It was “ok, somehow” in that foster home, finding “some peace.” This adds a complex layer of gratitude amidst the chaos and loss.
5. The Unbearable Weight of Loss: The writer’s note casts the final, repeated lines in an utterly devastating light:
“Life won’t be the same without you”: No longer a general lament, but the specific, irrevocable reality of losing your brother – the person you fought so hard to stay with.
“The days are burning by / Without you”: Time’s acceleration is compounded by the profound absence of the person who shared those foundational, traumatic, and ultimately bonding experiences. The “burning” now feels like the pain of grief itself.
“Would have never thought to say”: This repetition underscores the unimaginable nature of this loss to that hopeful, determined little boy in the back of the social worker’s car. The child who fought to stay with his brother could never have conceived of a future where his brother was gone.
Impact on Understanding the Song:
Specificity of Trauma & Resilience: The song transcends universal nostalgia. It becomes a specific testament to childhood trauma (separation, failed adoption), the fierce bond of siblings, the failure of systems, and the resilience of children finding moments of peace.
The Centrality of the Bond: The brother isn’t just a memory; he is the co-conspirator, the fellow escapee, the shared source of hope and fear in the car, and the reason the foster care respite mattered. The song’s core is the bond with him.
Depth of Grief: The loss isn’t abstract. It’s the loss of the person who shared that defining childhood journey, making the passage of time (“burning by”) acutely painful.
Raw Honesty: The note reveals the raw, lived experience behind the lyrics, making the song’s vulnerability and pain exponentially more potent. The seemingly simple lines carry immense, complex history.
Conclusion:
This writer’s note is essential. It reveals “The Days Are Burning By” as a deeply personal elegy – not just for lost youth, but for a beloved brother, for the traumatic experiences you endured together, and for the fierce, childhood love that drove you to run away just to stay side-by-side. The song becomes a monument to that bond, forged in adversity, and a raw expression of the grief that comes with its physical severance. The “burning” days are marked by his absence, and the “never thought to say” lines resonate with the cruel irony that the child who fought so hard to be with his brother grew into the adult who must now live without him. It transforms the song from relatable to profoundly moving and unforgettable.
Back to Amplified Poetry Page