SUBJECT>Re: As Fire, my Father POSTER>BJ EMAIL> DATE>1112984481 IP_ADDRESS>NET66-37-174-103.wave.hicv.net PASSWORD>aapQxMDWF2RXc PREVIOUS>85960 NEXT> 85994 IMAGE> LINKNAME> LINKURL>

Mike,
There's sustained tension in this poem that really carries it. I'm waiting for something to happen and it does. Some small nits: I'm not sure what the beginning adds to this; maybe I'm missing something, if so, ignore. Also, "a town a city" and "remembered pets" seem redundant. When you bring up "string theory and chaos" , I feel like I want to know more or some image to make that fact sing. Otherwise, enjoyed reading this and thinking of my father.
sincerely
BJ

: As Fire, my Father

: My father as fire melts December snow
: with each step he takes through a Pennsylvania
: field.

: But there is no field there is no snow,
: only a mud-rutted road where my father walks

: as fire under a sky filled with molten geese,
: which now know the horror of too much heat.

: My father as fire sits in a flat-bottomed boat.
: He poles across the water, looking down into
: it,

: where he sees a glowing town a city &
: pillows,
: on which ashes shape themselves into children’s
: faces,

: & friends & former lovers & joyful
: leaps from remembered pets.
: My father as fire believes in string theory
: & chaos,

: convenience stores & muscle cars & the
: fly rod
: abandoned to the cellar because fire &
: water no longer mix.

: Some days the old rivers run through his eyes.
: Some days his old eyes run through the rivers

: like facets on a diamond like fangs on a snake,
: like seven white horses drinking from a flaming
: trough.

: My father as fire at seventy believes in the
: laying of hands,
: an act which brings him both pleasure &
: pain,

: the moment when the father sees the son
: close his eyes & begin to burn.