anger is a violent hunger
consuming me from the inside out
or rather
anger is a summer field full of tinder and dry grass
and your face is still danger
still the careless flick of a lit cigarette
sending everything around me up in smoke
I can put out the fire and still be covered in the burns
which is to say that
I’ve learned how to play firefighter by letting it go
clearing away the underbrush
before another wildfire of hate hurls through
but forgiveness will only come
long after the burns turn to the kind of scars
I can talk about by name
for now
all I have are ashes and aches
ashes and aches [poem]
Larissa Lee 