not the naked rafters hanging / skeletal in the night air / charred beams braced / against a deeper black / not the largest bones / femur & skull / fire’s flickering shadow / fumbling over / mineral & marrow
/ not brick not cinder not glass /
not the sleeping seeds / of lodgepole pines / cocooned in resin until / kissed by the blue / heart of flame / not the swarms of greenbrier / tangles of thorn / unfurling like smoke / rising like song
/ not sky not thistle not light /
not the cliffs of clay / ossified white & ash-gray / cloud-fossils heavy with / ocean & memory / asteroid & ammonite / not the absence cratering / dry lakebed / silt & sand cradling / what emptiness is left
/ not iron not gypsum not salt /
not the silence smoldering / between breaths / still hot to the touch / embers blooming beneath the skin / not the ache that flares & settles / the slow pulse walking close / behind my own small heart / beating low & long / & longer
Note: Poem title borrows & paraphrases dialogue from Season 11, Episode 25 of Forensic Files (“Shell Game”).