Fanning the Flames, by Devon Balwit

Pandora's Box, by Rene Magritte (Belgium), 1951.

Fanning the Flames

Let the city burn, for I carry you
with me,

saving you from its bellicose sky 
and empty streets.

Together we’ll watch the flame 
of slate-faced 

burghers, those who never gave us
the time of day.

We’ll cross their final bridge, 
leaving nowhere 

behind. You will open to me, petal 
by petal.

Others, though curious, will never see
my face.

Devon Balwit

This poem was written as part of the surprise ekphrastic poetry challenge on Magritte.
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Devon Balwit writes in Portland, OR. She has five chapbooks out or forthcoming: How the Blessed Travel (Maverick Duck Press); Forms Most Marvelous (dancing girl press); In Front of the Elements (Grey Borders Books), Where You Were Going Never Was (Grey Borders Books); and The Bow Must Bear the Brunt (Red Flag Poetry). More of her individual poems can be found here as well as in The Cincinnati Review, The Stillwater Review, Red Earth Review, The Inflectionist; Glass: A Journal of Poetry; Noble Gas Quarterly; Muse A/Journal, and more.