I'm Burning

I’m burning inside

And all I smell is aloe vera

Because I need the soothing

I smell it when I see her,

Or rather I concentrate on it so I’m reminded of her

She is balm for my soul

Flay me and layer the goop to fold me back over.

—

My eyes float to the eucalyptus

and the breeze it conjures

to sway its leaves.

I wish I could bend the wind,

or at least summon it.

—

These were the thoughts of the man,

Laid up in the thick layers of white gauze, rosing,

Wishing for the ease of a mist

which would be too stinging on the remains

After flames kissed his face,

preventing her tenderness from a penitential act,

Now no more than ash,

Mingled with the beams,

Left in a heap

In that Californian stretch

Where the Joshua tree stands

In desecrated Eden.

—

Aloe is all that remains.

Not a bottle,

But a precious leaf:

Hope of what little life or relief

Clings.