“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the LORD Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them.”
– Malachi 4:1

May the door stick. May the log smoke.
May the things you tried to hide
float to the surface. May the muse choke.
No: may she flare, then consume.

May your mane thin. May your voice
go reedier still. May you sit in your room,
handsomely appointed, and watch her recede.
May the snake unfurl itself from its coil.

May you get your wish. May you get them all.
May you see, as if for the first time, the first leaf fall.
May you tremble in the open without its shade.
And then may your soul repent, left no choice.

May your heart’s bloody cauldron boil
until at last you know you are human – and thus afraid.