STONE ON FIRE
by John Tustin
Our world is a
stone on fire
revolving in agony
for the
entertainment of a demented sun.
Our love is a
fishless ocean—
vast, desolate,
bridgeless,
infinite foamed iniquities.
Every pebble on
every beach
its own tiny stone
of fire.
Every drop in our
ocean
its own fetid
nation
of gossips and
libertines,
insolent
slack-jawed charlatans.
When the waves hit
the beaches,
that is when the
stones are quenched;
that is when the
stones ignite.
Our bodies pierced;
the sand drenched in blood,
the blood covered
in sand.
That is when our
cities are in shambles,
our forests
ablaze,
our dead-zoned
ocean
conducting the
lightning in the sky—
slick with flames
on the surface
and riddled with
pestilence below.
John
Tustin’s poetry has appeared in
many disparate literary journals since 2009. fritzware.com/johntustinpoetry
contains links to his published poetry online.
Bernice Holtzman’s paintings and collages have appeared in shows at various venues
in Manhattan, including the Back Fence in Greenwich Village, the Producer’s
Club, the Black Door Gallery on W. 26th St., and one other place she
can’t remember, but it was in a basement, and she was well received.
