Fire Walk

I fall through the ice
where your collarbone cracks.

The deepest wound
is just below the rib
where the breathing stops.

Sheep run down the mountain
in cumulus clouds
that shield
the body of fire
with the mystery of
the dark.

Sun steams rain from the sidewalks
where the edges of oriental poppies
become translucent.

It’s all a coded message
a humid afternoon of petals
even if the truth shines only for a nanosecond
before it evaporates again.

 

 

About the Poet:
Diane Frank is author of Swan Light, Entering the Word Temple, and The Winter Life of Shooting Stars. Her friends describe her as a harem of seven women in one very small body. She lives in San Francisco, where she dances, plays cello, and creates her life as an art form. She teaches at San Francisco State University and Dominican University.  Blackberries in the Dream House, her first novel, won the Chelson Award for Fiction and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.  She is editor of the bestselling anthology, River of Earth and Sky: Poems for the 21st Century.   www.dianefrank.net.

 

Poetry Breakfast accepts submissions of poetry and poetry related creative non-fiction year-round.  See our Submission Guidelines page for details on submitting your work.

Start your morning with a nourishing poem.  Follow us on  Twitter, Facebook, and  Tumblr,  and enjoy a new poem every morning straight to your feed.