I was nothing more
Two eyes and two ears
With two hearts
Out of mind
All the while gazing
Always through the fire

All the fires
Others fires
Mirroring each flick and fleck
Over and over
The same fire
All the while
Denying
The heat burning my toes
Ignoring
The flames skrimshawing
In the soot of my soul

Two hands dipped in paint
Stringing sentences around my neck
Two legs limp
Burned and bleached
Logs of what the fire ate up
Nothing more
But smoke
Dancing through the leaves
Of books I had wrote
Meant to write
Watched be written

None of them mine

Too long I had gazed
Endlessly into the flames
Throwing paper into the fire
That has burned me up

Blackened stumps dot
The leather
Cover of my skin
Italics in bold sans script
Read
Two eyes and two ears
Two hands
Two legs
heart
mind
Pencil
Paper
Battery
Steel wool
.......... Grinning still

Nothing more

(JL)