Fire

Four-hundred lightning bolts pattern themselves around the earth each second.

First knowledge of fire sprang up on as many faces as fore makes on a circle.

Empty space is the home of fire.

 

Tending fire is an act of husbandry, teasing and stroking, like guard duty.

A man comes in from a cold night and warms his hands and flexes his arms and legs.

A woman warms her hands and embraces herself.

A cat naps with its head turned away and its body to the flame.

When we warm our backs, we face the shadows at the edges of a fire’s light.

 

Fire is a screen for pictures we make with our minds.

Fire absorbs attention and draws in voices.

 

Lovers bathing slowly like candles

Lovers try to scale a fire without being burnt.

Tools of a fireplace, shaped in a fire.

Unfamiliar things brought close and cooked.

 

The dancing of fire is filled with expectancy.

Curious waving fire talks and flips things to you.

Grabbing beauty is touching fire.

 

The end of fire is dark

Over the fireplace hangs a ring of old keys.

When fire surrounds the shape of an object will appear after it is no longer there.

Night Watch

Shadows cross in a holding pattern.

A twisted flagpole chain sounds

an unsteady beating over a doorway.

 

Toilet odor and corridor ammonia-

Repeating footsteps, keys and a flashlight-

 

Laundry piles-

Buckets stuffed with mops and old socks-

Blankets wedged into corners-

Walls with banged in frustration holes-

 

The pantry and the freezer padlocked shut.

Stainless steel utensils

hung like mottos.

Andy beats his meat and smiles in his sleep.

Herbie hides under the covers,

Peeking out when he thinks something else might happen.

 

Ronnie’s got court in the morning

And he already knows what they’re gonna do.

 

Kelvin dreams about a street full of cars

that are all his

and women who fuck their asses off for him all day.

 

Michael grinds aspirin crumbs

into the spot where his tooth was

 

A cough bounces through the dormitory rooms.

 

When Jeffrey wakes up he wants to cry.

He doesn’t know why his Momma let them

put him here after he promised to go to school.

 

Alex says he don’t care if they ever let him go.

“Everybody gets screwed for laughs”

Is what he wrote in the bathroom stall.

 

Shower room echoes and AM chores-

Most guys wear bandanas on their heads.

 

The crazy cook is telling everybody about her problems

And they are laughing about how sore Herbie’s asshole

must be this morning and then Herbie smiles.

That was a mistake.

“You liked it didn’t you?” yells Kelvin

Pointing at Herbie’s smile.

 

Ronnie’s being real quiet and watching.

 

“Michael say he too sick to get up” reports Alex.

Most guys grumble that Michael’s a fake.

 

When everybody starts moving out to the van for school,

Ronnie watches them through the window

And then looks back at his TV cartoons.

Alone

waiting together

She looked straight ahead

Peripherally

He watched her standing close

Against the candy rack

He pays his money and leaves

Wondering

what her body would have felt like

In his arms

In his bed

The image returns to him

Packs gather by the candy store

on the corner

huddling like cats

 

Bottles scattered

catching light off the cold ground

like winter insects

 

A child with no coat

wiping her nose on her sleeve

with swollen hands and feet

A statue that a statue maker never finished

stood in the corner of a workshop room

and began to smile every day.

 

She watched the statue maker begin her

work in clay and then shape the finished stone.

at night she watched the other statues play.

 

Now this model had been created with a feeling

That just wouldn’t go away,

and though she never seemed to grow

something seemed to change…

 

It was in a burst of enthusiasm,

the sculptor brought her to the sandbox and lay

her down gently, so that she looked the other way

and she was completed so quickly that before

she had anything to say, she was done.

 

And some questions went away and she looked

around with certainty, she knew she’d come of age.

 

This statue who now stretched her arms to the side

as her hair tumbled down in a cascade,

looked straight at her maker with both eyes wide

and saw in whose image she was made.

 

She filled with a pride that nearly cracked through her sides

and with a look that was reflected in her gaze

The sculptor held her high and began to smile

but for a moment the smile went away.

 

They saw into each other’s eyes

And said, “I could love you.”