Fire Followers

There are seeds that begin to unclose themselves only

at the touch of smoke particles in soil, some

chemical vivification: Lazarus

come forth,

the burning time is done.

A trail of fume tendriling downward 

alerts them, 

molecule char

in leaky earth.

Now is their time to begin.

*

Know, then, that the first shoots will rise

to monstrous wreckage:

ashen shadows: great former things

bent down in abominable ruin.

The clouds themselves will be raked with scar,

and all that was, the color of dirge.

Through this, the seed

reaches slowly.

William Orem’s first story collection, Zombi, You My Love, won the GLCA New Writers Award. His second, Across the River, won the Texas Review Novella Prize. Read more.


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Primordial Heart

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Forest Dance