You annihilate the land given
and bury your scorched earth.
Above it a prairie breathes
yellow grass and whips in the wind;
the land stretches beyond
where I am allowed—
vast and empty you wait:
invisible, unmarked, a specter
haunting the places you’ve burned.
 
The wind switches direction;
I smell the remnants of fire,
and I know these places; 
they are perpetually inflamed;
the rings of circles you’ve sowed;
the ones you could not stamp out
without blackening the soles of your feet,
or singeing a ring of red around your ankle;
these are the places scattered across your field,
the ones inextinguishable by your love.
 
At the entrance to your land
stands an archway of rock,
which is where I lie.
 
From here, the land mines
whisper and call; they are hidden
so deep no one should cross
the stretches of this land;
they consume illusion,
the space beyond my feet.
 
Among the small terrors,
I see a marked path
zig zagging in and out,
with no end in sight,
and so from my rock,
underneath the arch,
I see what was, is, and will be.
 
I see your past—
she waves at me in a white gown
and holds the hand of another,
a woman dressed in azure.
 
I see the confusion of your present—
unaware of me, she lifts her red dress
to her knees and calls back to you,
voice echoing on the ridges of the wind.
 
Last, I see the embittered future;
her head cloaked in black, she
bows to the ground but
does not weep.
 
They are the flags of danger,
the poppies urging me to sleep
where I am, to come no farther
through the already burnt earth.
 
Yet I wave to my companion,
the one whose permission I sought
and was granted; he stands
with only the echo of tears
behind his eyes.
 
Let me burn, I say.
Let me jump through this field.
Let me feel a fire so great
so that I can come back to you.
 
When I return, bandage me in ash
and clothe me in silky blue but
do not plant me on this field;
hang me on my own mound,
far from here.
 
Let me ignite my own fire,
mark the territory that is mine;
let me create my own circle
of madness and fill it with
the terrors of my love for you.