‘A Fire in the Open’ by Leeanne Quinn

Light obeys the sky. Weather dresses me. Beautiful sunsets
seen through flame.

Where is the furnace and what are they burning?

It’s hard to calculate the distance,
though it can’t be far. The air polishes a flame
until it snaps and bristles. But the sky

is beautiful. The sky is a treat.
We are pillars holding up the city. The season wills it.

We warm ourselves on an autumn night. Empty hands
above flames, the sound of animals moving
in a nearby field, the sound of people leaving.

Someone is breaking sticks, snapping their thin spines.

The fire throws parts of us into light, tiny craters
form in the fabric of our clothes.

If ever the earth were to end it would surely look something like this.
If ever the earth were to end we would surely look.

But the sky is beautiful, the sky is a treat.
Whatever will burn is burning.

From issue #16: autumn/winter 2023

About the Author
Leeanne Quinn’s debut collection, Before You (2012), was highly commended in the Forward Prize for Poetry 2013. Her second collection, Some Lives (2020) was noted as a Book of the Year in The Irish Times and the Irish Independent. Originally from Monasterboice, Co. Louth, she currently lives in Vienna, Austria.