The Burning of Buffalo

When I think about my city

I think about cross-dressing Jesuits

smuggling

barbecued storm clouds

across the border

into Canada

cuz we don’t deserve rain

that warms our tongues

a lie

our parents

told us

so we don’t

shoot across

the sky

in the neighborhood

‪where I grew up

‪all the houses are suicidal

boarded-up windows

‪like masks

‪at a masquerade

‪houses praying for arson

‪for teenage gardeners

‪to plant lit cigarettes

‪in the floorboards

‪so fire-flowers

‪can bloom

Justin Karcher (Twitter: @justin_karcher, Instagram: the.man.about.town) is a Best of the Net- and Pushcart-nominated poet and playwright born and raised in Buffalo, NY. He is the author of several books, including Tailgating at the Gates of Hell (Ghost City Press, 2015). He is also the editor of Ghost City Reviewand co-editor of the anthology My Next Heart: New Buffalo Poetry(BlazeVOX [books], 2017).