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Writer's picturePolis Literary

The Two Sides of Burning

By Alexandria K. Mintah


A blaze does not gently partake of its prey

Nor take lessons in manners

Nor mull over the use of the proper fork or plate.

Elbows in the table,

A blaze just binges.

Maw wide open,

Half-burnt buildings hanging down to the ground;

The fire feeds its way to wreckage.

It subsists on spoil,

Raze the whole block in a single bite.

Fire:

Belligerent, breakneck, petrifying terrorizing.


Yet, elsewhere, at occasions, at the same time,

Beautiful.

Auburn, red, and golden,

A sun so in love with the lowly earth

It came down to embrace and to dance.

A fall day so wonder-filled it folded into itself

To warm winter seasons with resplendent light.

How many multiples must there be:

Sweet and savage

Wild and wonderful

Peaceable and powerful

Ghastly and gorgeous?

How many multitudes might there be

Existing in all of us?







Alexandria K. Mintah is a graduate from CVCC’s Associates of Arts and Sciences Program. Currently, she works at a local library and dreams of the day she can place a novel of her own on its shelves. She has received a YoungArts Merit award for Selection from a Novel, and some of her other work can be found in the VCCS Exigence journal.

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