Firesetters from Future Deserts by Hourloupe

Books log on to the pyre

The books consume the fire

In reds and blues
The fire tattoos
The covers

The fire setters hover

A child’s face
In an air balloon
Is drawn up from the center


And rises to the future fire the books consume

The books are flowers
Of orange and gold
They rob the fire of color

I look at you
At six
Sixteen
Thirty-six years old

What had I meant to do you wonder

Dunes and aloes strewn
across your threshold

It’s the fire the books consume

Wood and paper
Coal and kerosene
The flames have scraped the pages clean

But the books ate the flames

On what burns and what remains
It seemed as if we’d drawn a blank

So the fire setters made a heap
Leaned their chins upon their pikes

And standing in a circle dreamed
They hunted down the books at night

But the books were more clever
And at each step leaped

From the fire setters’ feet

The books consume the fire

Another story won’t be told
To put you back to sleep
The pages now are only light

If my fingers reach
Their surfaces I find
No sentences could I read

I am blind

Will you read to me
Of light and heat
So hot it burned my eyes?

The books consumed the fire tonight

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