Poets from the latest issue of The Bridge read their work.
Flashpoints
Tell me, what do you do when you love him?
—Unromantically.
The man who hurts you can be anyone at all.
He can be the man who loved you first.
First, after God
Tell me, what do you do when he’s angry as a flame?
—Flashpoints.
It only takes 80 degrees for 80 proof to ignite.
Caught in explosions.
Tell me, what do you do when he doesn’t mean it?
—Honestly.
He never smells his own smoke.
He just coughs.
Tell me, what do I do when there’s nothing to do?
—Helpless.
The smoke makes me cry.
I just cry.
Tell me, do tears extinguish flame?
—Hopefully.
Either way, the fire eventually runs out of fuel.
And he is left in ashes.
I sweep up.
Jessica Rinker is a junior secondary education and English major. She has been an avid reader and hopeless English geek since a very young age. She especially enjoys writing her fiction stories and poetry in her spare time. On campus, she is involved in the Honors Program and is the 2019-2020 president of the Student Education Association of MA (S.E.A.M.) After graduation she aspires to teach middle school English to help empower students through their own reading and writing.
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