by Alex Carrigan
after Sadee Bee
If I took the time to build a big enough
bonfire in the woods behind your parent’s cabin,
would you join me as I dance the night away?
Would you sit on a large enough toadstool
as I paint my nails with dirt and throw
fists to the ashes that fall around me?
I hope you’ll put your shoes in the care
of a feral cat and slowly chassé towards me,
mesmerized by the bronzing of my skin by
the bonfire, the perfume of burning moss,
and the crown of twigs I made when I
should have been working on our science project.
Would you cut off one of the braids in my hair and
let the fire kiss the end of it, holding onto the wick
between your fingertips as it slowly burns away
during my most impassioned dance of the night?
By the time the fire stings against your fingertips,
I’ll have put the bonfire out with my sweat.
I’ll then use one of the blackened sticks to give you
a stick-and-poke tattoo of my initials.
I’m normally only good at gifting things that will
disappear once the sun rises, but I hope tomorrow
you look at the smudges on your arm and remember
how this was the most liberated you’ve ever seen
me, but also that you will never see me
again once the school year ends.
Alex Carrigan (he/him) is a Pushcart-nominated editor, poet, and critic from Alexandria, VA. He is the author of Now Let’s Get Brunch: A Collection of RuPaul’s Drag Race Twitter Poetry (Querencia Press, 2023) and May All Our Pain Be Champagne: A Collection of Real Housewives Twitter Poetry (Alien Buddha Press, 2022).
