FIRE OUT

The stove was only warm this morning. The flame
Was gone, the fire nearly out, mostly
Gray ashes with merely a few ghostly
Coals to spark the kindling. I made a game

Of coaxing the blaze with narrow sticks
Below and larger chunks above and opening
The damper wide. I probably said a hoping
Prayer. But the coals declined my politics.

The redness shrank, the gray enlarged, and soon
The pile was dead. Wood surely needs the strength
Of “critical mass” to burn. So left the lengths
Of locust out. Begin again with festoons

Of paper, matches, tinder, and foster the yearning:
Wood needs wood to be fulfilled in burning.

(85, February 16, 1993)

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