Phoenix-Tongue<\/p>\n
\u2026for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. \u2013 Genesis 3:19, KJV<\/em><\/p>\n As the days passed, my limbs turned purple and my face turned to the colour of dust. \u2013 Kazuko Yamashima, atom-bomb survivor<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Suppose we are not made of fire. Suppose we turn of saliva, the sonnet, or her skin? Answer <\/p>\n “Phoenix-Tongue” originally appeared in PacificREVIEW.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Michael Schmeltzer <\/a>earned an MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. His honors include four Pushcart Prize nominations, the Gulf Stream<\/em> Award for Poetry, Blue Earth Review\u2019s<\/em> Flash Fiction Prize, and the Artsmith Literary Award.<\/a> Most recently he was a finalist in poetry contests held by Third Coast Magazine<\/em> and Water~Stone Review.<\/em> He helps edit A River & Sound Review<\/a><\/em> and has been published in Natural Bridge, Mid-American Review, Water~Stone Review, New York Quarterly, Bellingham Review,<\/a><\/em> and Fourteen Hills,<\/em> among others. He lives in White Center, Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Phoenix-Tongue \u2026for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. \u2013 Genesis 3:19, KJV As the days passed, my limbs turned purple and my face turned to the colour of dust. \u2013 Kazuko Yamashima, atom-bomb survivor Suppose we … Continue reading
\nchildren to dust. Should we carry their ash in an urn
\nas if the sacred exists? What some call love,
\nothers burn as fuel. How should we speak of
\npaper and people enduring the feral infernos?
\nI have no choice. I ache. I shower with shadow.
\nI wrote a poem on my lover\u2019s stomach with
\nmy tongue. Which lasts longer, the width<\/p>\n
\nthe question in phoenix-tongue. The towers
\ncollapsed on my birthday and a crimson bird
\nbuilt a nest in a tree. We were kids then, sure,
\nbut how do you explain this; we set the nest ablaze.
\nOne egg cooked in the center. The rest we saved.<\/p>\n