Fire

To toy with words is

to risk uttering incantations

beyond understanding.

It is to expose writer

and reader alike

to mysteries beyond fathoms;

maybe even scorching bystanders

who’ve neglected

to stuff their ears

with unholy cotton.

Once the shapes and spaces

of narrative and poetic familiarity

are uncorked in new

and precarious ways,

all bets are off as to

the fires that will be set.

Many a story or verse

has inexplicably mainlined

from eye or ear directly to heart,

forever changing, not just

the original readers,

but the universe itself

from the inside out.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins