Sunday, March 17, 2024 FUTURE INFERNO by Brenda Iijima
From fueling fire’s readiness
Fires breathe in oxygen like
Sentient beings, fire is sentience
A preponderance of flare
Tinder prepares
A human dwelling is a star
Fueled by past lives
A star is a preponderance of fuel,
As is fire
Wittingly or unwittingly
Fire as inquisitor never rests
Fire is the indicator
Fire is evidence
Fire removes the clues
Drain the lake
Cool the image
Store the sentiment with fire
I do not want to die again
Forest guardians killed
Murdered
Methane, soot and HFC’s
Slash and burn
Too big to put out
The core is molten
You know the center is
Fiery metal
Excess of fire
eventuates rock
The house was a star
A fueled warm interior
Paradise was a star
Everything we know
Is burning
Funerary overload
Commemoration of the dead
No one dares placate
The fire
The sun is rampaging
How this actually happens:
Combustion reaction at ignition temperature
Char: nearly pure carbon
Ash: unburnable materials
Chemical reactions in fire
Are self-perpetuating
Fire is sensitive to pressure
Seeds pop
A future opens as a tendril
Where is the lake of rain to cure the raze?
The lake of rain is a fever dream moist and soft
Real lakes are hot and melting
Wetness gasses off in plumes
A ceremonial dance to honor fire
Necessary
Necessary psychic intervention
A jackal-headed effigy with intense eyes
Give your young, give your forests, give your life
She went over to the owl
And consulted him
The town’s ruination was an instruction
Our imagination, on fire
He instructs you to melt into reality
About the Poet
Brenda Iijima is a poet, novelist, playwright, choreographer and visual artist. She is the author of nine books of poetry. Her involvements occur at the intersections and mutations of genre, mode, receptivity, and field of study. Her current work engages submerged and occluded histories, other-than-human modes of expression and telluric awareness in all forms. She is the author of A roundtable, unanimous dreamers chime in, a collaborative novel co-authored with Janice Lee (Meekling Press, 2023). A novel, Presence (Georgia Review Press, 2024) and a play, Daily Life in China (forthcoming from elis press, 2024). Iijima is the founding editor-publisher of Portable Press @ Yo-Yo Labs. She lives in Brooklyn.
This poem originally appeared in the online journal Peach Mag.
Related Event
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- Brenda Iijima will join poets Janice Lee and Robin Lee Jordan for an evening of readings at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 2nd at Just Buffalo Literary Center, 468 Washington St., 2nd floor, in Buffalo. Books by all three poets will be available for purchase at the reading from Fitz Books.
The Poem of the Week feature is curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.