Kit Kelen #1307 - pile burning

1307

pile burning

(midwinter thing)

little sun we make

to chase around

and backs to

can revolve

could chase a fire like that all day

better to start with dusk

clocks gone home

hard to know what to let

no hard edges here

but that the day runs out

watch

stand smoke aside

and mainly just be watchful

breeze attentive

have a bucket for the symbol

you don’t want this in summer

don’t want the fuel around

the pile gets going

you think

what can we add?

what has to go?

stars fall

and stars spin up

(other poems are full of them ­–

throw old poems on)

it falls in on itself

needs feeding

we find a leant-up

decaying door

I suspect original

the 1948 door

through which cows must have come

generations

a little ragged round the edges

damp

but the fire was hot

we threw it on

that door was a way in

we burnt it

now it’s gone