Starting Fires in the Midwest, by Derek Mong

Bank the former owner’s timber
then spread a grate of storm-wracked 

branches. Now tent the kindling 
and tip a match into the news

you can barely bare to read. 
Let the beaded heat bob and broaden

over the rally’s ballcapped faces.
Poke the fire with old campaign fliers.

When the hearth-brick blackens
blow till smoke fills the flue.

The ash becomes your  proof.  
Let it rain on your neighbor’s roof.

This town, its folks, this damn region—
Go to bed. Dream of arson.

_____________

Derek Mong is the author of four books of poetry, including When the Earth Flies into the Sun (Saturnalia Books, 2024). With his wife, Anne Fisher, he co-edits the literary journal, At Length. He currently lives in Indiana and chairs the English Department at Wabash College.