my anger is sunlight made red by the 

smoke of a prairie fire simmering 

in the air between us as you spew lies

and hatred of things you don’t understand

my hands are warming as I sit on them

they’re uncomfortable, fists. you don’t notice

I can taste the red in front of me, fire.

you ramble on, I don’t stop you I let

you reveal yourself word by word your

pretty hair turns dull and your cheeks sallow

Piss-coloured roses, ugliness incarnate 

I watch your lips flap in your own wind

How I ever came to think well of you

How dare you come into my house and say

You want to kill my friends for protesting

And call my mother’s family savage

As though savages are not self-made but

born, and you pretend I’m different

Stay a bit longer why don’t you and see

just how savage I can be

Feature Photo by Edewaa Foster on Unsplash.