ALYISA HARRIS

ALYISA HARRIS Poems

The Best Poem Of ALYISA HARRIS

Controlled Burn

you quit burning
your eyes no longer eyes reflect the flames
you think you're done
after all you run the gasoline out of your hair
you think you've survived
afterall, your underclothes stop smelling of smoke
so you wash the ashes from your face and dress in white
sweep the soot from your front door
avoid bonfires
avoid cigarettes
avoid candles
office supplies
avoid microwave
stove tops
anything that might spark
that might trigger what you can't control
a forest fire stretches from the forearm of the coast of empty his lungs to the seas
you shake your head and shut your door
thinking that there could never be another fire to refine you
so you sit in the dark
under the bleach of clean electricity because you're safe
and you want to be safe
there's no smoking you out of this comfortable hole
you believe in fireproofing
as if the issue was the fuse
as if the issue wasn't you
and your flammable little life which catches so easily
which exhausts all the oxygen in the room because
God forbid this was a witch trial
lover after lover who leaves you on the burner
body a gauntlet of incense
God forbid you have to clear the air again
learn to walk again
learn to look in the mirror and learn to love your scared face again after being singed
because didn't you forget it and didn't you forget and doesn't make you exempt
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego once in Nedbuchadnezzar's fire slipped out of their restraints
I imagine, to the king, he looked like a shadow thrown by flames,
three boys and an angel
three boys whose faith
whose willingness
{he} brought god out of heaven
and down into the fire
how they danced
how their clothes didn't catch when the heat burned them
baptism washes away the dirt of the past,
but fire cleanses the future so you cannot see
dear fire reinvent me make the soil again good ground for a harvest
the story of a phoenix might be a myth
and I may never rise again but
may this pain make me patient
may this pain make me patient
may this pain make me patient
i'm starting to learn
I faced it once or twice before
but all I'm looking at is controlled burn

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