Concerning Fire

by Daniel B. Summerhill

Ricardo Gomez Angel

I could hardly imagine all of this righteous rage going to waste, how our bodies are anti-combustible

anyway. Hard to imagine us feeling remorse for fire that our skin has always been glazed in,

a kind of clay we have claimed as skin. Or kin, a rage we’ve claimed as Kin.

Hard to imagine any other way of shedding light on injustice but through brimstone. For heat

and equality are both fundamental rights and right now I choose to fan this flame that has been brewing

for years — George was just the kindle. Sometimes all we need is to weep until our wells run dry and other

times all we have left is fire and we will burn anyone or anything attempting to put out our flame.

Hard to imagine being on the wrong side of all this smoke —

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Daniel B. Summerhill is a Professor of Poetry and Social Action at California State University Monterey Bay. His work has appeared in or is forthcoming in Obsidian, Califragile, Button, Cogs, The Hellebore, The Lilly Review and others. He holds an MFA from Solstice of Pine Manor College. Daniel has toured both nationally and internationally. In 2018 he was sponsored by the U.S Embassy to lecture and perform poems in South Africa.