Today the smoke is so thick oh god if you tilt your head just right you can trace the paths we’ve walked for us it’s five years of perfect circles the only action inaction we drew our curtains in permanent ink cursed the sun found no solace in silence but embraced it anyway sing of Centralia sing of the fire that never dies out sing of our arsonist his name romanticized and demonized in the same breath how the spark of a single match sets so many lives ablaze every morning now tastes of sulfur call him the Midas of Ashes remember him as Moloch I still lack the strength to forgive if I tell you my greatest fear is emptiness please don’t tell me that tomorrow too will be razed an eternity of cinders I’ve heard that a body sufficiently deprived of sustenance begins to feed on itself I wonder if there is similar process within the mind an ouroboros of thought all teeth and tongues of flame on days like today I am scorched earth footsteps in footsteps memory made solid something like sentience scattered and smouldering