i write fire

when i'm cold i can't think poetically

i simply see the narrow reality of the limits of my body

my mind shrinks into survival

but no I protest!

i will kindle some verse

to heat me in this freezing moment

i won't set my poems alight

paper burns too fast

i will burn the poems 

within my imagination

this incantative spell of letters following each other

will have to flame so hot to make
my heart beat fiercely with that feverish pulse 
to keep my body from succumbing

i have a fear that i will shrivel up
and transmogrify into 
a single shivering pore of gooseflesh

do not let me down, Poetry!

i need you in this cold hour

out on the streets of Cape Town

the sun has set

the shadows lengthen with inclemency

i think fire

i write fire

i breathe fire

this is all i can do to keep the cold

from clawing its way into

the last warm folds of my skin and heart