Letter 16 – Pat Out What Smolders

 

Unexpected fire

gifts from above

that sear & rearrange &

live in

the skull & body memory    red & dwelling

moments that etch history as we breathe

in  sanity  acquiesced   the mark of fire in

our belly

breathing flame like orange

days   when survival is maintaining the blur   gravity

weighs more

heavily on those chosen by the Creator

on the 7^th day.

Me – just a correspondent   or

haunted guinea pig

not

free   but wriggling    looking for an escape

from

the 

memory

of blood fire  - the wanton burn – seared meat flesh memory

others shy from

jogs

the regular linear process     - a landslide -     a forest fire -    an

evening meat burn

ceremony unintended.   Flames lick higher

for the oxygen they crave

you – mouth agape & nervous

w/ unexpected level of astonishment   - paralyzed by this slow

lightening show.    No one expected this summer excursion into

thunder

& the arena of Zeus

rain of hell-fire storming    the flesh tattooed & smoldering.

 

Gusts don’t happen in Slaughter August unless those gusts

of

wind are flame-induced    when the crackle of limbs burning

brings the forest down upon

your expectations.   This is no way to waste energy   the World

card suggests change   or a voyage

& if this is the tempering     you may keep

our passport     a near-fatal

collaboration  of the elements

almost not worth what it takes to endure

a hellish fire-storm     rebirth  in  the

year of the Ram

old man    time to swallow again    & pat out what smolders.

 

4:14AM - 8.16.03

(Phrases taken from Joanne Kyger –

June 26 (For Ted Berrigan)– from As Ever - pg 226)