Antiquity of Fire

Saint Paul, 15 March 2011

How early

did humans

control fire?

The question

of the antiquity

of fire burns

like an irreversible

brush fire no one

expects will stop

Still I excavate

burned bones and

scorched artifacts

with a stainless steel

dental pick and

a dust bellows

Delirious from sun

stroke I blow

friable soil one

grain at a time for

irrefutable evidence

of controlled fire

I learned of fire

for the first time

in febrile dreams

My hand blisters

before my digits turn

to carbon dust and

orange embers coddle me

from frozen death

come winter