C S Hughes
Arson Girl
Arson girl plays aeroplanes
Arms stretched out and swooping
Down steep and grumbling cobble lanes
She believes in love and naphthalene
And plastic lighters all the colours of the summer sky
We folded paper for a game of hate and love
Tearing with a monster claw at desperately chanced futures
Listening to the origami roar
Of fragile folding hearts
But when it said, for her
There would be only paper moons
With furious legerdemain and burning fingers
She flung it in the air
Unfurled a bird of ashes
While a crushing song, on the tin can radio
Sang of a ramshackle sun
She held aloft a single flame
And sang along
Dancing for the end of time
While the curtains slowly, slowly burned
image: Marco Allasio
image: Andrew Coop
