Putting Out the Fire - Rebecca del Rio

[Larry Robinson]

Putting Out the Fire

for John, who stocks the medicine cabinet of the heart

Hearing children shriek at play,
today, first time in 58 years,
I don't hear that burning boy,
Fire rising like vine, twining
up his thin limb. My mother
chasing him, racing flames
and winning. Wrestling the boy
She smothers the reason for
screams with a sheet, ripped
white from the line, fast as
fire. The koan says

Put out the fire across
the river. Impossible,like
this task of living,
loving the unloveable
in ourselves and each other.
Chasing the screaming child
who forever lives scarred,
Impossible to fix the past.  

There is no fire, no river, only
impossible demands—
helping and healing while
we burn. We are the flames.
Every day, more of us
burns, turns to ash. It
is the world's way. 

There is no fire, no 
river. Only life
ripping through us,
a storm tide pushing
the river upstream, muddy
And roiling. Life,
a slow burn, like sleeping love. 
Life, a burning river
Within. No fire to fight,
no fight. 

	- Rebecca del Rio
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