The Ice Cream Man Is Burning

The place is on fire
the entire place
flames devour holy man
and infidel alike
the young girls
unblemished, lurch
down the street
human torch-light
uncorrupted, screams
buzz saw into smoke
pigeons dissolve into
feathery ash.

I have found the river
and watch from a distance
that mimics surgery
gone wrong. People
run toward me,
begging for just
a little more –
more life, more love
more impossibility.
I side-step and they
splash into the
moving water and
are carried away.

Then I see him.
The ice cream man.
Here he comes,
his flame is white
and he is laughing,
he is crying, his body
bulges, cracks.
There is something
different here,
I think to myself
as I watch him go
in and down with the rest.

Paul Benton

About Ijagun Poetry Journal

Ijagun Poetry Journal is a quarterly journal that provides a platform from which we can tell our own stories in the authenticity of their multiplicity through the poetic medium. We don’t want to hear these stories from our master “griots” alone; we want to hear from those mastering their art, too. Hence, we aim at publishing new and emerging poets. We also welcome the works of established poets in order to encourage the poetic genius of those mastering poetic art. We prize original works that conform to, break or reinvent conventions. Again, we accept reviews and critical essays on poetry. We also accept powerful art works and photographs that make us appreciate the "poetry" in everything.
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