We are standing alone in the graveyard,

The wind bleeds in through blackened branches,

Stealing past promises of freedom.

Light fails.

Young enough to believe this is your ending, you

Step into the grave,

the sound of tears flooding your breaths

As you pour oil and gasoline

over your tattered monk robes

like God’s tears.

I’ve come to see you leave. Help you fly way.

Your hands. The movement of your hands

 against rotting soil, pressing into

The heart of the dirt, your aching palms

feeding life and death all in one,

Gasoline n your lips, you kneel by the willow trees,

Oh child, teach me how to save you.

From within folds of your cloak,

You draw a match, And strike it’s end against

the box, face glowing in the twilight.

The moonbeams cascade down upon the village road,

And against the pale nape of your neck.

I feel the earth rumble, and you, fingers quivering against me,

Curse up at the stars, at the gods who failed us.

Green-clad soldiers gather,

uniforms the color of the seeds

left by your windowsill

In the home you won’t return to.

Sound of the match igniting,

Cacophony of ruin,

A reminder of what you’re fighting for.

Can you even remember a time before

You strung broken Chinese syllables together

Like weaving a blanket with hip-bones,

Greeted by guards handing you

Your heart and the bend in your back.

Do you even know who you are?

You drop the match to your feet, into

Pools of gasoline pregnant with destruction.

Oh child, hold your arms high in the flames,

Scream into the night, I am listening.

The wings on your back,

Are only just my fingertips

Reaching for your burning skin.

Oh child, show me how to retrace your figure

In the dust. Show me how to hold you the way

The sky holds the stars and the clouds.

Teach me how to kiss your silhouette

The way snowflakes kiss the ground before losing form.

Whisper my name, child. For I am grasping onto your ashes,

lost in the upturned soil, mixed with dust and the loose ends of your shirt.

In this story, no one wakes up to Heaven.

With weeds raveling themselves around bare ankles,

You cant escape. Fire wont burn your sins away.