by Susen James
February founders in darkness & ice
deep winter calls you out
marked in frost & cobwebs
appropriate shadow for its best purpose
beneath this haunted moon
welcome pyromancy to set things right
toy with properties of heat & light
the first lesson of fire is intention
to focus warmth & brightness
witches do not fear flame
fire banishes the old
the worn the no-longer-useful
builds anew from residue
to learn the lesson of fire start with
small expectations a single wooden match
they say fire is uncontrollable
prove them wrong
fire shrieks like a teakettle
thunders like volcanic ember but coos itself silly
after an altar song sung of combustible words
fevered daughters of the shadows love
the cloy of flames at our fingertips
the feathery tickle the soft power
the restless flitting interplay of candles
in midnight blackness
so shiver so flicker so pure
arrange an altar to serve the voices of the pyre
fire requires oxygen requires breath
poetry requires flame
offer your scorching cauldron
to the fire goddesses still listening
& let it burn ash your forehead & heart
in runic expressions of blaze
brew a medicine of luminosity
eaten gently teaspoon by teaspoon
flames to burn away Covid fatigue
sadness & sorrows hiss your griefs
in flaring language it only gets better
from here remember holding your
palm above a candle to see how long
until your skin sizzled?
cut through the backdoor
throw some kindling & logs in the fire pit
toss in some herbs to turn sparks
blue & smoke the air tearoom sweet
set it ablaze set it ablaze set it ablaze
already half-way there
Susen James writes to remain somewhat sane. She is obsessed with writing poems about
her obsessions & is currently working on a series of poems about Baba Yaga & a poetry
art collabortion with artist, David Feingold. She teaches mythology, fantasy lit & poetry at
Columbia College in Chicago.
