the hall was set on fire with the snap of a match and all the guests went wilting while we

went searching searching for whatever imp it was that thought it fun to set the flowers aflame

 

you ran to me you ran to me across town across the chapel across the hall to tell me

the building was burning you set off the alarm and told me the building was burning

 

you didn’t know that I had done it I didn’t tell you that I had done it though the evidence was

there the evidence was there at my feet burning the bones because you ran a little too late

 

a little too late wouldn’t stop the flames I couldn’t feel but I screamed because you thought I

should I should but the nerves had been burned so I couldn’t feel except for the edge of the skin

 

so when we ran searching searching for the imp that thought it fun to burn my feet I didn’t tell didn’t tell you I needn’t scream for it felt as though I was gliding a foot off the ground a trail of fire two feet

 

off two feet far the fire tailed as we tailed the trail of the imp who must have been cold must

have been as he had given his fire to feet and flowers and hall and the tailed trail had gone cold

 

we went back to the hall to find it still aflame and the flowers wilting wilting under the heat of the blaze so we went home leaving feet and flowers and hall to burn out to burn themselves out

 

but as we tangled in our sheets tangled up the sheets our tango and my feet caught the sheets aflame you touched your fingers to the blaze because of course you did of course you did

 

and I wouldn’t tell you I won’t tell you I met the devil in a coffee shop and she asked me for coffee and a light so I gave her coffee and a light because of course I did of course I did she was blowing

 

smoke and I was blowing smoke when I told her she owed me one she did coffee’s not cheap

so when I woke to coffee on my table I knew I knew that something you or I would be set ablaze

 

I didn’t tell you so we grabbed cigarettes to light off my flaming feet but after we lit the flames of my feet fluttered out though the bed kept blazing we huddled for warmth blowing smoke at each other

 

you wondered if the hall was still ablaze and the flowers still wilting they were nice flowers they’ll be nice ashes though not allowed though not aloud I wondered to me or to her do you now owe a light