i was given the choice of an afterlifetime supply
of anything at all that my heart desired.
i didn’t much need to think: i asked, of course,
for fire.
& now i have my pet flame
that quite literally brightens my days
warms my tea in the mornings, goes
on walks with me, & licks
at old poets’ windowpanes…
this fire of mine, i like it a lot
i like to watch it move. mostly,
i like to let it roam free, but
listen, sometimes i do
press its heated tendrils against my temperate skin
just to remember what Earth was like…
& for a second, i’m delivered a simulacrum
of glory, of how it felt to be alive.