Steve Klepetar

Looking Down

When night blazes,
when our eyes turn
to lanterns,
when we climb away
from heat, looking down,

when we watch
our houses burn
and everything turn to ash,

we come to know
how quickly
fire swallows towns,

how all around
the hills
burn,
and under earth
rivers boil toward the sea.

Steve Klepetar wishes he could burn with a hard, gem-like flame.