warm we link arms before the brawl breaks our ranks
we touch again ineffectual fist to ineffectual face
we are touched again to be peeled apart sprayed
toward sobbing and held again in rapturous pain do you remember
now singing by torchlight? do you remember the strange sounds
of which we are capable? the moan the mutter
the laugh around campfire and when campfires tamp
and glow and our bodies just cool of a blister
kind and momentary sister to sister
brother to brother all else like a staircase rises up
or helps us descend in time
it is a struggle to keep cool to fight with
one's own fire the necessary stoke and recoil.