Embers

By: Josephine Pino

White moths without eyes

absent mouths, single winged

remnants 

of combusted life

thermal motion

relieved of flame. 

You weave wild, 

lifted by swirling air. 

that catches you in its

confused  grip, heat mixed

with cold. You rise and

you fall and you fall

and you land, decorating

my sleeve and my thigh as

I extend my fingers toward 

the warm licks

roaring above your 

steaming corpse. 

I cry tears that purge your 

smoke and you wander

away, carried by a slow

southeasterly wind.

---

Josephine is a biologist educator who has recently discovered that poetry, teaching and science not only play nicely together, they help each other thrive. She started writing poetry two years ago and finds that she can't stop. She has published in El Portal, Cathexis NW, Curating Alexandria, Raw Art Review, and Tiny Seed Literary Journal.

"Embers" first appeared in Tiny Seed Literary Journal under the title "Ash": 

https://tinyseedjournal.com/2019/05/10/ash/