Match Book

by Julia Shipley

Compliments
of St. Martin’s Coal Co.,
my great granddaddy’s
combustible store.
Nothing in it—all lit.
Never met him, or
his black ore. But smoke?
Oh, sure: a hot temper is
the ignition of sin; we’ve got
a conflagration of urges
still burning inside my kin.

Published on May 8, 2017