for the second time in my life
I walked into my father’s home as he sat in front of the TV
watching the news unfold and he
apologized to me
for ruining my world
for giving me a ruined world
for placing me delicately
atop a pyre
and I gave him the same answer that I gave all those years ago
that when fire is all you know
it doesn’t feel like burning
you made a child with fireproof skin
and children now are in fact
made of flames
that run up the walls and ignite the beams of the old ways
so for us now
it’s the water that we fear
tori & her words 