fire | The Poetry Foundation

more the idea of the flame than the flame,

as in: the flame

of the rose petal, the flame of the thorn

the sun is a flame, the dog’s teeth

flames

to be clear: with the body,

captain, we can do as we wish, we can do

as we wish with the body

but we cannot leave marks—capt’n I’m

trying to get this right

the world’s so small, the sky’s so high

we pray for rain it rains, we pray for sun it suns

we pray on our knees, we move our lips

we pray in our minds, we clasp our hands

our hands look tied before us

I remember, capt’n, something, it didn’t happen, not

to me—this guy, I knew him by

face, I don’t remember his

name, one night

he’s walking home from a party, a car it

clipped him, for hours he

wandered, dazed, his family, his

neighbors, with flashlights they

searched, all night, the woods, calling out

his name

here’s the part, capt’n, where I try to tell a story

as if it were a confession: once,

in elementary school, I was hiding out

on damon rock, lighting

matches & letting them drop to the leaves

below—little flare-

ups, flash fires—a girl wandered

down the path, she just

stood there, watching the matches fall from my hand—

capt’n, I’m trying to be precise: hot

day, a cage in the sun, a room without

air, the mind-bending heat, the music

a flame—hey

metallica hey britanny hey airless hey fuse, I

don’t know how it happened, I was perched far

above, I offered her a match

to pull down her pants—one match, her

hairless body, hey

little girl, I dropped it unlit.

I didn’t know what it was I was looking at.

hey capt’n I don’t know if I’m allowed

hey capt’n years ago I’m walking

down a road one drunk night, even now I

wonder—sometimes still I

imagine—was I hit by a bus, am I stumbling am I

dazed, this

dream this confession, hey

little girl is yr daddy home, hey capt’n hey

sir am I making any sense?

the boy stood on the burning deck, stammering

elocution, wait—

the boy stood in the burning cage, stammering

electrocution, no—the boy stood in the hot-hot room

stammering I did stammering I did stammering I

did stammering I did stammering everything you say I did

I did.

hey metallica hey britanny hey airless hey fuse

hey phonograph hey hades hey thoughtless hey

capt’n this room is on fire

capt’n, this body will not stop burning

capt’n oh my captain this burning has become a body

capt’n oh my captain this child is ash

capt’n oh my captain my hands pass right through her

capt’n oh my captain I don’t know what it is I’m looking at

it’s important to be precise, to say what

I know—

the sun is fire, the center of the earth

is fire, yr mother’s cunt is

fire, an airless flame, still, still, I don’t know why

she pushed me out, this cold-cold furnace, we all

were pushed, a rim of light around our heads, she

gave a kick, sent us crawling

out, toward the flame, toward the pit, the flaming

pit, yr lover’s

cunt, the flame her tongue, the flame

a thorn

everyday, capt’n, sir, captain, I was

left, a child, after school, I was alone, I found

a match, under the sink I found a can, a spray

can, ly-sol dis-infectant, it made a

torch, I was careful the flame didn’t

enter the can, I knew it

would explode, somehow I knew, I’m

trying to be clear sir—the flame

shot across the room, then it was gone

Source: 2011