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