On lighting a fire

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Nash

Wed Jun 23, 2010 9:59 pm

Take a piece of charcloth; relish its blackness
and how it is so soft that your calloused fingers
cannot feel it. And how it is so soft
that the blackness transfers, like butterfly wings,
picking out past scars.

Take a piece of black flint; the blacker the better.
Hold it in your palm and feel its cold solidness,
its glass shard hardness. And how it is so hard
that its sharper than scalpel edge will cut
your calloused fingers.

Take a piece of old steel; strike it fast and hard,
fast and hard against the blackened flint.
Burning curls will catch the ragged cloth.
Breathe the gentlest breath to spread the iron glow
across the blackness.


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