local_library Whatever You Have to Burn, Burn

by Gregory Luce

Published in Issue No. 292 ~ September, 2021

Let anything that burns you come out.”—Lola Ridge

 

Dead leaves

dead ideas

dirty money

 

Whatever you have to burn,

burn to clear the path

through the thorns

and tangles.

 

Pour

gasoline

whisky

rage

 

March through the ashes,

carrying the burning flag

through the smoke

against the broken sky.

account_box More About

Gregory Luce is the author of Signs of Small Grace (Pudding House Publications), Drinking Weather (Finishing Line Press), Memory and Desire (Sweatshoppe Publications), Tile (Finishing Line), and Riffs & Improvisations (forthcoming from Kelsay Press). His poems have appeared in numerous print and online journals, and in several anthologies, including Written in Arlington (Paycock Press and This Is What America Looks Like. In 2014 he was awarded the Larry Neal Award for adult poetry by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Retired from the National Geographic Society, he lives in Arlington, VA, and works as a volunteer writing tutor/mentor for 826DC.