you haven’t cried in years
now is not the time to start
a fire breathing down your throat
and your voice falling three stories
hand-sized flakes of paint
shreds of paper and ashes
in piles and in the air
your own empty bed on fire
the night outside filled with stars
you turn to watch the flames
in the black room behind you
your nails digging into the windowsill
no wind
and the only sound is the fire
eating through the building with a ripple
your skin blackening in the shadows
the bright orange flames braver
and closer you can almost
see your own dying
feel a hot breath on your face
you believe the others must still
be sleeping in their beds
and now you are sitting on the sill
trying to remember the distance of spit
Mary Jerzak is a graduate of Oberlin College, with a degree in creative writing and politics. She also has a Master’s from Agnes Scott College, where she studied secondary English education. Since then, for the past 20 years, she has been teaching English to middle schoolers. Her poetry has been published in a few small publications – Artword Quarterly, Common Ground Review, and Poetry Motel. In 1999, she won a poetry prize from The Poetry Society of London. She also won a poetry competition hosted by Agnes Scott College’s Writers Festival in 2004.
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