Rose Lighter Poem by Adora Williams

On my sixth cigarette today
On the balcony
I dropped my rose lighter
I could have gone down the stairs and picked it

I didn't. The street felt crowded and empty.
I, then, got the match next to my cinnamon-flavoured candle
Sat on the rocking chair
Lit it and it slipped from my fingers onto my leg
It burned the nightgown that I was wearing during the day
It crossed the silk and reached my skin
It burned me. And it went out.

The little burnt sore, increasingly reddening, made the shape of a big heart sustained by
One little foot

That is love, I thought
It happens by accident, it burns you as quickly as it fades
By the flames that you thought to be your choice
But it ends up just being the circumstances
Of an existence that feels too heavy to carry
Alone