Gunpowder

Gunpowder 11/4

The tea leaves are tiny fists
waiting for hot water to unclench

We sat on a bench in October
and talked about barbecues and fireworks

The fog rolled across the plaza
and the smell of fireplaces began

Americans like drinking and explosions
in parks in rivers at Disney World

Take this city and flatten it out
make it a rocky plain and farmland

Here is a house of stone
uncoiling in the mind into reality

Like one of those little black tabs
that you light and watch turn into ash snakes