“Our love will set a precedent for all the worlds future flames.” -Thomas Paine

 

I hope you know

there are more than burnt embers between us,

there are

full

fledged

forest

fires

cascading crimson trees

inside of me.

Evergreens

and

Spruce trees substitute for lungs,

oxidizing

and

igniting every stalk

and

blade that sprouts

and

extends outward.

With ashes in place of stomach matter,

I collect soot on the inner walls of my intestines.

I did not expect love without

the fire,

why would I want it that way anyhow?

I urged for more than a spark,

I planned for an inferno.

You did to me what lightning does to dry wood

and

since molding you into stanzas

would dilute you to pretension,

I will calculate you into scientific form.

Lightning is an electrostatic discharge

so voluminous it raises it’s surrounding temperature to

54,000 degrees fahrenheit,

a calefaction so incandescent it fuses sand into glass

and

enkindles ordinary catalysts,

such as an Evergreen,

to flame.

I am the Evergreen.  

Standing on city streets I attract worried looks as smog

and

gaseous vapor seep up

and

out of my mouth

and

nostrils,

my ears become chimneys.

And walking through crowds of paired off people,

I sense eyes interrogating me from a distance,

asking

Who are you searching for?

Why are you here?

I can do nothing,

but diminish into excelerant patches;

looking as if I am sending smoke signals to aerial optics.

As the last tree

falls

and

topples

and

ceases to flare

I think,

I should have kissed you longer.