There it was, on the face
of the last log I lifted into the burner
crawling across the rings
wondering where to go.
I would have pulled the log out
but it was already flaming, and
I didn’t have the raku pottery tongs.
The woodlouse fell into the fiery embers.
Oh yes, I would have laughed
if I was like the pilot
heading for home, delighted
with a successful mission,
leaving a child writhing
in white phosphorus.
Alex Barr’s recent poetry is in Last Stanza Poetry Journal, Quagmire Magazine, Poetry Review, The MacGuffin, Scintilla, The Dark Horse, Orbis, Silver Birch Press, BlueHouse Journal, Hole in the Head Review, Acumen, and Third Wednesday Magazine. His collections are Letting in the Carnival from Peterloo and Henry’s Bridge from Starborn.