Mayari Literature, Issue III: Fire Bloom

Issue III: Fire Bloom

Art by Tala Lillie

A Letter From Our Guest Editor

Dearest Reader,

When the moon is full of grit and grin and toddler gods you will dream of finding an American penny with your birth year on it. You will wishing-well toss your lucky birth year penny into a fountain of youth that fluently speaks bad decisions and majors in maybe there’s a heaven, maybe there is a hell, and why not marry a spark if it gets too dark, either way let the fire bloom. And keep the engine running. 

Fashioned from flint and fire water and dragons throat flicker, these writers fear not the flame nor the fuel nor the keep up tooth bristle gargle-spit hotter than a reformed guilt trip turned Halleluiah in church; ask Tefft to ask Waltz to ask how many Sidekicks Counts would it take to stop counting Flammable gods on both toes and fingers once the lights at all of our end of the tunnels go out.

American Soldiers too driven to not drive death and silence and prayer life home is where we find Zamfirescu and Byrd with a brigade of bridge burners armed with band-aids that reek of butane and congratulations Franco, Segal’s flowers and Allen’s flamethrowers are a marriage made in a heaven that only a fire blooming Prometheus’s and Spisak could be proud of. Fireballs, scorched idols and trees are where Parker, Benson, and Rose-Jertson finds Americana snooze buttoning itself up for a night on the town with Time, Took too Long, and By the Way…keep the engine running. 

It is in the bloom of fire blossoms and all things wisdom and old of flame where Leong meets Guity meets Daswani meets fire bloom petal praise that rather be damned than be burned out and wish less, and penny less, and/or fireproof, and “Remember the fire / that burns / in your soul,” and the undocumented engines still running, Chamchoun; and the “boss is god,” Daramus; and maybe that’s why “we are not calling the fire brigade,” boasts Zomkhonto…a wonderful birthday penny of a collection this is so please and no matter what my Dearest Reader… 

…don’t forget to keep the fires blooming 
and keep their engines running. 

-Charles Perry Jr :: CP Maze

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Table of Contents

Marianne Tefft Fire

Eike Waltz Ombra mai fu

Greylan “Sidekick” Counts Ruth’s Sestina

Mona Zamfirescu American Soldier

Chanson Byrd Two Haiku

Bryan Franco Bridge-Burner’s Lament

Deborah C. Segal Triangle Flowers

Dee Allen. FLAMETHROWER

Rick Spisak Prometheus

Terri Rose-Jertson More About the Trees

Brett Benson Scorched Idols

Martin Parker Fireball

Jennifer “Soy Avocado” Leong Orlando on Florida

Principe Guity Blooming Fire

Neil Daswani Old Flame

Nayma Chamchoun Undocumented

Lucia Daramus A Play With Dices

Mbonisi Zikhali Zomkhonto Volcanic Activity

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Fire

Marianne Tefft

When you are known as too intense
There comes a time when you no longer ask 
Whether this is true
Or just their way of nudging you 
Into an ever-smaller space
For all you have ever known is the urge
To stand in the flames until your heart bursts
With all-consuming heat and joy
You have learned to turn up your lips
Into what passes for a mild smile
For none asks fire to change its ways
The Ponderosa pine is immune from questions
About why its skin hangs shaggy 
Like unmatched pieces of a jigsaw puzzle 
To repel glancing flames
None looks askance at the shortleaf pine
Who buries her buds among outstretched roots
That she may fight fire with fire after a blaze
Or asks why the pines hickory and prickly
Seal their cones inside waxy coats
Until scorching heat forces their hands
To spill their secrets across the forest floor
You have never understood the epithets
That try to give the bad rap to passion
For you are no different than the dryland trees
Who must bravely meet fire with grace to survive

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Marianne Tefft is a poet and voiceover reader who daylights as a Montessori teacher in Toronto. Her poems and short stories have appeared online, in print and on air in North America, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean. She is the author of the poetry collections Full Moon Fire: Spoken Songs of Love and Moonchild: Poems for Moon Lovers.

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