Content Warning: grief, death

McCaela Prentice – Only I can prevent Wildfires

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There is going to be a wedding at the hospital and I can only keep my partner alive

if I hold them tight enough tonight. I did not do it right.  I make a promise

and I rehearse it until the glass of water is empty.  next time

when I wake pressed to their cheek I will ask nothing of my ceiling-

of the gods of gypsum and of futures I have unraveled by returning to the stove,

for it was not luck that saved them but this bargain with tomorrow.

It is lucky that I know the trick- that the bad thing did not happen

because I threw away the bottle.  At Huntington Beach State Park

I become an awful secret. Smokey the Bear pointed at me, not us. I can save you

but only if you let me blow out the candle. The forest cannot burn if I stare

at the dead coals one more time. I need just a moment. Hozier was right.

It’s not the waking, it’s the rising. It’s the rising

to find the door is shut. that the door is always shut. I make a promise with tomorrow.

I am so sorry- I do not want to kill you. I had to take the walk.

I will make you fireproof. I will kiss you until it’s quiet.

I promise, I promise.