Etched with Fire

When a human is asked about a particular fire,

she comes close:

then it is too hot,

so she turns her face—

and that’s when the forest of her bearable life appears,

always on the other side of the fire. The fire

she’s been asked to tell the story of,

she has to turn from it, so the story you hear

is that of pines and twitching leaves

and how her body is like neither—

all the while there is a fire

at her back

which she feels in fine detail,

as if the flame were a dremel

and her back its etching glass.

You will not know all about the fire

simply because you asked.

When she speaks of the forest

this is what she is teaching you,

you who thought you were her master.

-Katie Ford