it’s quite okay to eat fire
there are rules a trick to it
so long as you don’t inhale
or swallow
you can ingest
all kinds of flammables:
billboards hessian sacks
dressmaker patterns
old birthday cards love letters
address books and showbags –
just spit out the purified lamp oil
if your bronchi alight –
even then from across the lake
a funeral boat arrives
like a pyre and you can eat that too
because you won’t breathe in
you will be ready for any kind
of crash on the Wall of Death
or a fall from stilts –
the peace you feel will burn
so brightly because you have
lived momentarily
far beyond the water’s lit dark
where mountains waver and part –
