Love Poem: Fire
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Written by: Allison Ballard

Fire

The lecture falls on my head
where I've been called to listen
Where my father's hard work has
planted me
but sadly, there's no sun.

My sun-tanned family
couldn't know where I've been
when the dark was believed to be
a time of rest, for me, a sea,
it's supposed to fall over me
like this lecture
which just won't sink in

That just cannot touch me...

No, my mind is behind the sight 
of my supine lover
who I drove to the ground
with an underwire 
and the curve of neck
Who I covered with my mouth
when I made myself a tree

and deeper,
deeper,
my roots can touch
and feel it all at once...

that overwhelming well
that bursts with tears
from my eyes like a 
spring

The darkness holds my open heart
and puts a hunger in my hips
puts a flame in the pit
and I just can't put it out

Not today
Not now

Words will have to roll off again
and maybe today I will fail to listen
but this is what I am

what my chest and lips have made me

an unquenchable fire