various fire starters lined up in a disorderly fashion
after Landscape 1977-79 by Chuang Che
even the snow / has barbs / dmitri / if you invert our bed / sheets you make another / cavern / concave & fleshless / look where the fire / you left / has burnt the winter / an upside / down mountain / your dishes like / a snowbank of hands / where your mouth / once gnashed at / vacancy / i slept behind the shed / where our drug / dealer hid her mountain / bike / pumice & crab / grass creeping up my / sleeves as if / i was their sun / the nails of mountains / each one a bent excuse / wood waiting for / spark / you think / every blizzard can’t be warmed / dmitri / but dmitri / the burning / bush / we planted outside / the cave of the back / porch / has spurn blood / from your palms / every time / doesn’t that mean / you’re still soft / or is it just / that we’re not eating enough salt / & ash / to make up / for lost heat / so go on / set the house ablaze / forget about hypothermia / the hamper doesn’t know / any better / its tumbleweed / of snarl / a perfect starter / go ahead / dmitri / i don’t mind what takes / me / you / or a flood / of your melting / there’s nothing / like the high / of watching from atop / towering granite / how easily it could all / just turn to fuel / against you / nothing like an allegory / of caves / don’t you know dmitri / the one where every mountain / has a cave but not / every cave has a mountain / something outside of / the fire remains / yet unseen / to us / at all times / we just have to keep / making the brightness / bigger / so that we’re not / the only ones left / in the dark
Liam Strong (they/them) is a queer neurodivergent cottagecore straight edge punk writer who has earned their B.A. in writing from University of Wisconsin-Superior. They are the author of the chapbook everyone’s left the hometown show (Bottlecap Press, 2023). You can find their poetry and essays in Impossible Archetype and Emerald City, among several others. They are most likely gardening and listening to Bitter Truth somewhere in Northern Michigan.
