Bluffton University

To a Lover in my Dreams

by Mel Gross

dear XXXXXX,

have you ever seen a brushfire
burning hellishly across the horizon and
wondered if it was your cigarette
butt, tossed to the roadside that
became the coal in the dark,
lighting the first low-lying weeds?

if i am a brushfire then
you are the cigarette,
you are the coal on the roadside,
the red eye in the dark. 

how does it feel to be a catalyst?
to start a fire that rain can’t quiet?

if you are the careless beginning
then i am the barren ending,
i have been made into ashes on the wind,
ashes on your breath,
clinging to the end of your cigarette
and flaring, as your breath flares.