Contributor: J.K. Durick

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Lighting up on a day like this
Is a precarious business at best,
Of cupped hands sheltering our match
As we snatch at the flame in hurried gasps
That move to soothing, if done right, soothing
Puffs we linger on;
With backs turned to the thrust of the wind
We whisper to our hands something about desperation
Smoothed over, made right, a panic checked.
Even the uneven burning, the accelerated turning
To ashes can’t dampen the moment plucked from…
The moments we move through with this satisfied look
On the way toward the anticipated end
When we can finally flick our butt
Into the wind.


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J. K. Durick is a writing teacher at the Community College of Vermont and an online writing tutor. His recent poems have appeared in Eskimo Pie, Pacific Poetry, Ink Sweat and Tears, and Muddy River Poetry Review.