sjsprWriting

i.

orphans of risk are paper dolls

soaked in gasoline and stinking of impulse

like passion and photographs and all things ephemeral,

in exposure, they extinguish

ii.

wax wings make their shoulders heavy,

turn them into dry husks and

brittle leaves rattling

in hot breath.

iii.

gravity grows in the pits of their stomachs

like a cancer—

meaty,

gray,

sinister.

iv.

their lives are violent in their beauty.