flame Eaters

by Jesse Mitchell

When your eyes were turned away

When your black eyes were turned away

Half-closed

And looking far off

Is when you lost me,

Sightlessly lost me

In the thick darkness

The dark barely-here-shadows

And the wild sounds

Of wild things.

Lost in the places of fires

And slow trains and imaginary things

And unconquerable stains

Left by indistinguishable stings.

When your eyes were lost

And turned blankly away.

Dancing, ripped apart, dancing in margins

Over here away

On the edge of the blade

Knife

Sword

Sword swallowers

And flame eaters

And fire spitters…

The rail-splitters

The never liars

The green eyed

And

Beautiful souls

The nothing-to-no-one devils

The I-never-know-a-danger lunatics

The no sorrow, no regrets, never turning back maniacs

The wild noises

Of wild things

When you turned your eyes away

Is when you lost me

In the swirl and

Sound

And might

And muddle

Of low light.