Bonfire by Susan Tepper

For reasons vast 

and numerous

may I call you god?

Using the lower case?

I do know my place.

I’ve split from the living—

too much pointless 

swag and conversation—

Sticks in the yard

offer more in the way

of heft and texture.

Feel good in my hands.

Kneeling I gather them 

stacked with their own kind: 

Saplings and desiccated

barks entwine.  A big bonfire.  

Then you may deliver me.

Susan Tepper is the author of eight published books of fiction and poetry. Her most recent book just out in June is a road novel titled “What Drives Men.” It was shortlisted at American Book Fest Best Book Awards. Other honors and awards include eighteen Pushcart Nominations, a Pulitzer Prize Nomination for the novel “What May Have Been” (Cervena Barva Press, and currently being adapted for the stage), NPR’s Selected Shorts Series, Second Place Winner in Story/South Million Writers Award, Best Story of 17 Years of Vestal Review, Shortlisted 7th in the Zoetrope Novel Contest (2003), Best of the Net and more. Tepper is a native New Yorker.