Fire or Sleep

Lines jig up peaks and down troughs,
Like fires seen on slopes at night.

It’s just your mind, just your thoughts
Lost in all that heat and smoke

As you burn your way through life.
White noise from the clouds jags down

And up you go, line by line.
Too much fuel and too much heat,

Then too much fire and you sleep.
Close to spring, on damp grey dawns,

It all looks like one black scrub
Shawl tossed on the hills. Life snores

In the low tones of bored wind
That picks through the dead, downed woods.

You’ll be back. Fuel and fire core
All worlds. It’s their dance, not yours.