Wildfire you wound me touch me
turn me over my aching self my parts
downside right upside left you rid me
of my breath deoxygenate my death
bed I accept my dependence on your
déjà vu tongues uprooting my past
and searing off the last layer of skin
Wildfire you bleed me from within
like a leach you suck out all my
toxins mutilating my acres until
mother nature heals my wounds
with holy water
Wildfire for weeks you annihilate
everything I live for force me to start
over but now rest so I can make the
best of your destruction and rebuild
the world you disrupt again
—
‘Earth’ was published in 2016 as part of the UEA Undergraduate Creative Writing Anthology, Undertow.