The Burning

Dervish 60 x 60 cm - acrylic on canvas

 

THE BURNING

 

Citizens of numerous

online domains…I watch you

swipe over Instagram like it’s

…well…you know…nothing.

 

You look up from your phone, notice an old man

emerging from a deep vibe, retro-enigmatic, moving

stealthily in your direction. Pretend stealth.

He wants you to be alarmed.

 

Looks like the type who would burn his papers

against a broken wall in some fragrant, bone dry,

southern land. Pornographic prose poems, diaries, letters

vicious with gossip. Released from paper, from so many significances,

 

you don’t burn anything these days. Delete mails.

Unfriend strangers on Facebook. That’s the end of it.

And no can one report

mad scribblings on the back of 

ripped open envelopes anymore.

 

James Schuyler wrote that Auden burned his papers

like a diplomat burning secret documents

while the embassy’s under siege. Now, admit it,   

you have to believe you’re pretty important to do that.