Kerry
Trautman

                     Silver birches one by one. Aspen 

                     who know what to quake for. Saplings and 

                     pine duff. Where there is smoke, leaves 

                     dream of running. Manzanitas, 

                     pepperwood, breath of heaven. Not every house 

                     but a damn lot of houses. Where there is 

                     smoke, trees reach skyward. Charcoal, bridges, 

                     landfills. Matchsticks, branches, 

                     middle-school hearts, black cats. Where there 

                     is smoke, there may be women. Salem women or 

                     Hartford. Joan of Arc. Triangle 

                     shirtwaists. Sierra-Nevada sequoias alive 

                     during the Song Dynasty, alive during 

                     Council of Orleans. A cottage full of heretics in 

                     Orleans. Where there is smoke, there may 

                     be Lolita or The Bluest Eye. 

                     Thích Quảng Đức in his robes and lotus.

                     The Stonewall’s disco ball. Mississippi crosses.

                     AME altars. The Tsar’s Odessa. 

                     Kristallnacht synagogues. The ovens. 

                     Underbrush. Where there is smoke, someone 

                     feeds on flame.