Guy Goffette, quoted in Poetry Nation Review, #277
Included in its original plan –
a fireplace, raised brick
where one could sit, back to the flames.
The low, near cupboard held
no shelving, only space
for what the yard offered
from pruning, storm loss, rot –
cherrywood one year, birch
another – that and cordwood
purchased and stacked head-high
in the garage, a chopping block
and hand axe in its far corner
there to render slabs and rounds
into thin lengths
for kindling – my job
to keep that cupboard wood-full,
a day’s-old newspaper slid on top.
No chore satisfied me more,
save on darkening evenings,
Sunday mornings,
the actual fire building: two logs,
paper bunched between them,
a lightwood tangle,
one log more on top,
one match.
Lex Runciman’s seventh collection, Unlooked For, was published in 2022 by Salmon Poetry. His work has appeared widely, including in Ploughshares, Southern Poetry Review, Nimrod, and Poetry East. He lives in Portland, Oregon.