- To Burn a World
We could be the world to each other. We couldbe light unfiltered by the evergreen,the slow-burnt brown of both. The warmth of ourmultiplying bodies trapped between the layerswrapped around the mountains, insulatingthe sky. We could plant warheads and smokestacks.
There are several ways to burn a world.The friction between our neighboring heartsintense enough to make us spark and flame.Grow clouds that the sky wouldn't grow itself.Our bodies sticky, sheets of sweat buildingin space behind knees when we stand too closeto the fire catching.
We can watch it melt,layers of paint sliding down the wallslike frosting on cake, [End Page 93] left out in the sunwhen the birthday boy realizes he hateschocolate. Drywall and plaster curlingand peeling from wood beams that in turn willbuckle and wither. Brick and mortar turnmercury, pool into rivers on fire.
Downtown skid row and everyone we knowwill kiss each other with blue-flame lips
Our friends and the scientists will run teststo know the source of such heat, but they, too,will start to feel faint. Papers, computers,their skin and their bones, turn to lava and ash,erasing everything, before we could explain. [End Page 94]
Brianna Lyn Sahagian-Limas is a writer, educator, and library professional from southern California. She has published poetry and fiction in Greenleaf Review and River's Voice.