'I come from a fire city' by Eve Ewing

The Unheard Feelings

I come from the fire city fire came and licked up our houses, lapped them up like they were nothing drank them like the last dribbling water from a concrete fountain the spigot is too hot to touch with your lips be careful fire kissed us and laughed and even now the rust climbs the walls, red ivy iron fire and the brick blossoms florid red like stolen lipstick ground down to a small flat earth stand on any corner of the fire city, look west to death the red sun eats the bungalows the fire city children watch with their fingers in their mouths to savor the flaming hots or hot flamins or hot crunchy curls or hot chips they open the fire hydrants in the fire city and lay dollar store boats in the gutters warrior funeral pyres unlit