Vibrant dawn dazzles
Pitch bone slate lamp nightdreamers
Eyeblink shadows flit
Earlybirds dart brisk alert
Incanted day arrives
Perfect golden light
Rakes tree leaf and bark
Hope springs all prisoners
Every time you go
‘Whoops!’
(which is increasingly
more frequent of late)
Johosophat gets very jumpy
It is a good thing that
I will never tell you that
You might do it to disturb
Him just for the sport
I know what you’re like sometimes
The devil makes work
For bone idle hands
bloody sociopaths,
boorish prats, the absent-minded,
& those who observe the worrying demise of rubber tree plants…
Bring me moonshine
In your smile
&
gusto
In my hearth
O hearths!
~
The paraphernalia of open fires—
Scuttles, grates, tongs, clinkers,
ash shovel, hatchet
Rickety kneebends
Scrunching up the Sun
The News of the Screws
~
Picking good cinders
Hatcheting sticks
Three matches to light
Always three matches
Crackle & slow collapse
~
Juvenile flames keen to jive
The timing of the bigger sticks
Critical mass
The placement of the first coals
Put the heavy front on
~
Clunk
Shut the little door
& hope real hard
Offer up a silent
prayer to the firegods
Every little helps
Last refuge of a scoundrel
See it caught at last
Grimbeau 