I’m the closest thing to a walking flame, I tell ya.
I was Born on Tuesday December 21
Which means two things
1. I always get cheated out of birthday presents
And
2. I’m a Sagittarius
The fire sign
Whether or not you believe in it
I am suspiciously consistent in my arson of
things like
complacency
like
good things that come my way
like
the hearts of those I never intend to love
or
everything I’ve ever loved
See
What else has the power to bring an entire city back to its ashy knees
And regenerate an ancient forest in its place
I tell myself this has to be evidence of my good intentions
If I never meant to set you on fire in the first place
And you find yourself burning
Tomorrow
New life will being to show
in the parts of you
Only a woman like me could reach
I apply the only healing I trust…
Even if it hurts at first.
Conscious Men finding themselves chilly
love to ask questions they never actually want my answers to
Trying to set up the blueprint for how they will capture the heat of my spirit…
Like, how many stable relationships I’ve had
or
How many people I’ve actually slept with
But if a lady never tells,
Maybe they should ask
how many times I’ve set someone else on fire
Or
Set herself myself on fire for someone else
Or
Find myself alone burning quietly
Hands cuffed around my sensitive heart
The most shallow breathing
Coaxing life back into what’s been bruised again
Eyes closed, hiding
trying
to imagine being something else
Something always desired
Or
Something harder to put out quickly
Or
Something easier to hold,
See the thing about fire…
If an open flame tries to escape
The confines we set for it
We contain it because we tell ourselves we have to
We remember good women are like water,
calm, cool, and collected where they are supposed to be
How droplets running down the side of drinking glasses look like tears
How we find that beautiful
So if I decide to be the flame that boils
To give in to the wild freedom of my heart
If I try to escape
The oppression that keeps me damp
The fire pits they make out of empty promises
Just to watch me burn pretty for them
at night
So they can ask me
to keep them
warm
in a cold world
While they decide
just how long they’re going to stay outside to see
me
Tell me that wildfires are dangerous
So I might become my own extinguisher
Something colder and cooler
Something closer to the stone
They keep in their pockets
But every candle
Has the potential to be a
Great
Chicago
Fire
And every firepit
Has to able to
stand the heat
Lest it
collapse
and endanger everything
Instead of finding strength to hold me safe,
They throw dirt on my name
Everytime I get a little bigger than they’re used to
A little hotter than they’re used to
They call me
reckless
wild
dangerous
They warn others,
show their friends their burns and
Their friends tell them
I told you so…
Don’t you know you’re not supposed to play with fire ….
And that girl
Is Hot
Like the cops are watching her house
Or like people are watching my every move
Just to see
If
I’ll
burn
My
self
out
.
