Real Fire (Janet Hamill)

Real fire is the central anthem calling birds to free themselves from tapestries

Real fire has a secret known only to the confederacy of first born super nova

Real fire is a signal torch carried into the future by the children whom nobody leads

Real fire burns its bridges to impede the orchestra conducted by the rain

Real fire is a slip of a girl dancing in a window before the bloody phalanx at dawn

Real fire lays down its weapons at night to worship brittle trees and high grasses

Real fire leaves its mark in the roses clinging to every balcony in the poet’s city

Real fire resurrects in cycles of five hundred years from the ashes of ancestors

Real fire knows neither dignity nor pride when courted by the angels of the wind