Fire Word
Gold fire, rings
of terrible fire,
born
from a strange dream.
Flames think only
of flames, expanding
constantly, hungry
for the hunger
for more—burn,
overtake, transform
worlds into
infernal
catastrophes, never
resting—
its incandescent
eye always
watching. And having
scorched us,
ripped and
raddled us into
ash, fire sleeps in
a deep red glow,
becoming still and
dark, dreaming of
forests and cities
to level,
growing hungry
again, stirring
a little in a few
floating sparks,
on their way out
of their cooled,
flickering bed,
foot-soldiers
of fire’s ancient
kingdom—born
of God’s void,
blazing time
into space,
multiplying into
immense stars,
infinitely numbered,
each their own
school of pure and
endless appetite,
burning alive
until it’s time
to darken again
in the crush of
eternity. The circle
of fire and ash
never closes,
and its story
has barely begun.
Alexander Etheridge has been developing his poems and translations since 1998. His poems have been featured in The Potomac Review, Scissors and Spackle, Ink Sac, Cerasus Journal, The Cafe Review, The Madrigal, Abridged Magazine, Susurrus Magazine, The Journal, Roi Faineant Press, and many others. He was the winner of the Struck Match Poetry Prize in 1999, and a finalist for the Kingdoms in the Wild Poetry Prize in 2022. He is the author of, God Said Fire, and the forthcoming, Snowfire and Home.
“My object is a burned-up apartment. It was next door to me, and I thought my apartment was going to catch fire, too. It was an alarming experience, as you can imagine—the fire spread so quickly. My poem is a response to watching that fire and seeing all the damage it caused.”