Catching Fire

Caroline Picker & Leah Jo Carnine

Catching Fire

Writen and read by Caroline Picker

“Marilyn” by Leah Jo Carnine

For Marilyn Buck

some flames flicker

sputter

struggle to catch wet wood

but you—

you sparked free and never went out.

*

John Brown of your time

enemy of the state

full quiver at your back

a militant of life, as Benedetti said.

lifted among volcanic rifts

eruptions splintering empire

you of creations made possible, revolutions forged

the flashing brilliance of Assata’s escape,

flaring out across every night sky:

Black people will be free.

* 

for this and more / you lived 8 years underground / the fbi said you had a Joan of Arc complex / and pinned a shoot-to-kill order to your shadow / and then — not death / but half a life behind bars 

what world would we live in / if we had you / in freedom / all those years?

*

you had 20 days uncaged, at the end

far from what you imagined

glimpsing moonlight from a cell

not abundant flame

but an ember, smoldering in its last heat

sparks arching

from a life of constant ignition—

of the multitude,

one landed in me.

I will feed its fire.