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jonathan-wittePoems
You have to start by finding things to burn. Turn the island into a tinderbox. Fill your truck with driftwood and detritus hustled up from derelict construction sites. Scavenge plywood scraps and lengths of two-by-fours. Find a spot beneath the dunes and dig into the still-warm sand, your rusted shovel syncopating with the rhythm of the waves, crunching into the cool dark hollow of a deepening pit. By dusk, the hole will be capable of containing everything you want to burn. Set the shovel down. When the darkness finds you all alone, take the lighter fluid in one hand and a match in the other. Wait for the wind to die. If you do it right, the orange embers will crack and rise, truant children ushered home by pacing stars. If you do it right, the smell of salt and smoke will stay with you for days. If you do it right, the bonfire will bloom like a flower and consume itself all night long. In the morning, your work will have healed, doctored by persistent currents and the extinguishing sweep of high tide.
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May 31, 2017
May 31, 2017 at 4:44 PM UTC
How to Build a Bonfire
You have to start by finding things to burn. Turn the island into a tinderbox. Fill your truck with driftwood and detritus hustled up from derelict construction sites. Scavenge plywood scraps and lengths of two-by-fours. Find a spot beneath the dunes and dig into the still-warm sand, your rusted shovel syncopating with the rhythm of the waves, crunching into the cool dark hollow of a deepening pit. By dusk, the hole will be capable of containing everything you want to burn. Set the shovel down. When the darkness finds you all alone, take the lighter fluid in one hand and a match in the other. Wait for the wind to die. If you do it right, the orange embers will crack and rise, truant children ushered home by pacing stars. If you do it right, the smell of salt and smoke will stay with you for days. If you do it right, the bonfire will bloom like a flower and consume itself all night long. In the morning, your work will have healed, doctored by persistent currents and the extinguishing sweep of high tide.
jonathan-witte
Written by
jonathan-witte
May 31, 2017
May 31, 2017 at 4:44 PM UTC
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