by Steve Zeitlin
My cousin Rod McIver—smoke jumper—
parachuted into Missouri wildfires
became famous for escaping the great Montana blaze
by igniting a flickering ring of fire round himself,
hunkering down so the
sea of flames—
passed over and around
teaching us—when the infernos of the body politic
hurl down upon your fragile soul
light a passionate, fiery circle
round yourself, your family, friends
let the fires of this wicked world
pass over and around
AI-generated graphic by NightCafé for The New Verse News.
Steve Zeitlin is the Founding Director of City Lore, New York City’s Center for Urban Folk Culture, and co-founder of the Brevitas poetry collective. He the author of a volume of poetry, I Hear American Singing in the Rain, and twelve books on America’s folk culture. In 2016, he published a collection of essays, The Poetry of Everyday Life: Storytelling and the Art of Awareness with Cornell University Press. In 2022, he published JEWels: Teasing Out the Poetry in Jewish Humor and Storytelling (JPS/U. of Nebraska Press).
