SPECULATION
by Jessica DePue

There were children and fires
Eight kids, several fires
One after the other after the other

Breast fed, home schooled kid
Knapped by concerned relatives
Make shift homes by chance constructed

Mom went off the deep end, dad went off
Too often deepening the creases
Of love, it's obligatory reign

I chose estrangement
Formulated uncanny versions of absence
Checking in with equations, formulas
Exacting proofs that existence is real
Within this dream
Of non sequiturs

The Waco Tribune Herald informed
McLennan County he had ignited himself
My Dad mastered critical conditions

It was determined an accident
My doubts directed towards suspicion
Speculating his lack of control over anything

Visions of him striking a match
A split second dividing clean flesh
From scarred tissue and burnt screams

That permeate like ink on paper
I've stood above a sink, sickened
With sentiment

Watched words and polaroids curl
Into themselves, into vapors
I've felt the heated appetite

Of a flame consuming life
From inanimate objects, satisfying
Itself with the smug task of voidance

Leaving memory and error alone together
Like a man
Left alone with such tools