A Caught Fire

By Amelia C. Eilertsen

~a mixtape inspired by Sonia Sanchez’s “Catch the Fire.”

I sat on my carpet
awash with blue
from the radiant glow
of my phone’s screen

voice scratched up
by the frog that dove
during intermission
between each of my
harrowed screams

Sonia Sanchez
returned as the spider
crawling up my leg
asking me:
“Where is your fire?”

I lit a stick of incense
turned to the fired end
became smoke
became air

she said:
“Sister, sister.
Brother, brother.
Come, come.
Catch the fire.”

but I had long since
been the ember
turned to ash
at her feet
the mountain of her ashtray

my end was
cycling backwards
lost for meaning
lost for time

“I say—Where
is your fire?”
she repeated
moments before another
match was struck

before fire had
a webbed history
it could burn
“Gone,” I replied as she
ignited my soul anew

---

Amelia C. Eilertsen is a queer, Zambian-Norwegian mixed-race writer with a BA in Creative and Professional Writing from Bangor University. Her life is a cosmic swirl of insomnia and the brief spaces between making a moment and watching it pass by. She can be reached @ameliaconny on Instagram.