portion of the artwork for Matthew Harrison's poetry

Fire
Matthew Harrison

1.
seen you lick walls
gnaw and spit
fuming demon
in top windows
you show off pop
and lock moves bright
you beautiful you
swallow
atmosphere
devour all
to skeleton
infest with orange
termites chew
your way out
swarm and belch
geyser light
your breath
a thousand sheets
in thunder
flapping hard lines
limp and ruined
you make black day
backdrop
to fireflies

2.
like match

to dandelion

glitter

disappearing

is always

to glitter

hair is dead

cells dead cells

burning

trail smells

of anything

burning

hair withers

near electric

stove coils

to smoke

and riddles

is it the house

or dead skin

burning

to glitter

3.
seen you goddess
high let hair down
tired spidering
light dissolve
where stars keep
smaller fires
dead
between
your dizzy pleats
your fading curls
illuminating
the sky-raised faces
of who sent you
up there to blank
the moon
boom and fallout
a broken bulb
you bombshell
phantom launched
howl and gold
exasperation
you weeping
constellation
seen unseen

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FRiGG: A Magazine of Fiction and Poetry | Issue 41 | Summer 2013