Incendiary Poem by Vernon Scannell

Incendiary

Rating: 2.9


That one small boy with a face like pallid cheese
And burnt-out little eyes could make a blaze
As brazen, fierce and huge, as red and gold
And zany yellow as the one that spoiled
Three thousand guineas' worth of property
And crops at Godwin's Farm on Saturday
Is frightening---as fact and metaphor:
An ordinary match intended for
The lighting of a pipe or kitchen fire
Misused may set a whole menagerie
Of flame-fanged tigers roaring hungrily.
And frightening, too, that one small boy should set
The sky on fire and choke the stars to heat
Such skinny limbs and such a little heart
Which would have been content with one warm kiss
Had there been anyone to offer this.


Submitted by Andrew Mayers

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Beth Monaghan 24 September 2018

Read this in school aged 12.Thanks so much for posting! Heartbreaking and so visual. Does anyone know a Scots poem, The Lost Collie, or one about ayoung West Indian immigrant girl on a cold grey day, called either The or A Newcomer? I lost all the poems I'd carefully written out as a child when my parents moved and can't find most of my favourites through Google.

3 0 Reply
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Close
Error Success