OXIDANT | ENGINE : Issue 12
Kieron Walquist
Burning
I flirt with this holy furnace, gift
it sand to scorch so I may sculpt
a two-thousand degree
glass—viscous & delicate as dawn. I
work with & against the drag
of gravity, let
this star-hot slush
bubble but twist it
before the shape gets
stone-heavy
& pulls itself apart. I melt
myself out like a church candle—
chains of sweat down my belly & back—
​
hung over the space where he rises—sizzling, stunning—
with each quick, wild breath.
He’s everything
in this moment
& all before it:
a beauty born
over & over.
One I’m lucky
enough to see.
Kieron Walquist is a queer writer and MFA candidate at Washington University in St. Louis. His work appears in Cider Press Review, fresh.ink, Gulf Coast, and Puerto del Sol, among others, and has been nominated for Best New Poets 2020.