More Sacred than Candles a man’s tallow burns low and long
not at all like a movie, slower. The fuel is just so much water.
Thoughts boil off in a languid plume – and less to be perverse
than to be accurate – there’s a dance to it so strange words like
wobble, shake and flail never quite describe the ecstatic gesturing
of a man burning while breathing. I pulled at the ends of every
rope I could find in my chest and screamed for You but kept silent
watch wracking my brain to answer poems. What happens
to an Iraqi’s dream burned? Does it crack and peel like a taxi’s third
paint job? or does the dream die with a finger in each ear, humming
what it can to ignore the world crumbling like oyster shell and salt.
Screams must be
flammable
for his last
prayers went up as quiet
as wax
smoke carried on
shamal winds
TJ Reynolds’ work has appeared in The Hour after Happy Hour Review, NAILED literary magazine, and is upcoming in the Spring 17 issue of 0-Dark Thirty magazine. TJ uses poetry and creative non-fiction to discuss themes of war, love and loss.
8-WEST PRESS 