Bloodletting a Nation on Fire

Misery consumes this earth like letters to a flame.
The heat rises from masquerades and blazon sweeping balls,
Overflowing with wine and roasted pig,
And the discarded carcasses of appetizers and meats,
Bright as a morning star singed down to earth.

This malignant carcinogen you’re creating:
Feasting on cities of smoldering ashes,
Milk and honey evaporating off your flushed skin,
Sugar melting on top of your kindling,
While this furnace slowly hemorrhages.

Understand the mess you’re making.
This world will bleed before it can cleanse itself.
Smoke will mix with blood and sear the sun.
Our air will be smothered with gunpowder and sulfur,
Forever choking us until the sepsis of the scorching sands.

Kill it with fire. kill it with fire. kill. it. with. fire.
You’ve raised yourself onto a pillar of salt
That’ll soon collapse into dust and embers.
I have come to cast flame upon the earth,
And how I wish it were already burning.

Damola Fabayo is a high school junior at the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology. His work has been published in a variety of printed literary magazines. As an aspiring writer, he typically just jots down whatever’s on his mind–for better or for worse. Read other articles by Damola.