Concerning Fire By Daniel Summerhill, Assistant Professor School of Humanities & Communication

I could hardly imagine all of this righteous rage
going to waste, how our bodies are anti-combustible

anyway. Hard to imagine us feeling remorse
for fire that our skin has always been glazed in,

a kind of clay we have claimed as skin. Or kin,
a rage we’ve claimed as Kin.

Hard to imagine any other way of shedding light
on injustice but through brimstone. For heat

and equality are both fundamental rights and right
now I choose to fan this flame that has been brewing

for years — George was just the kindle. Sometimes
all we need is to weep until our wells run dry and other

times all we have left is fire and we will burn anyone or
anything attempting to put out our flame.

Hard to imagine being on the wrong side of all this smoke —

Concerning Fire was originally published on June 26, 2020 by Trampset