C.E. Chaffin

Warning

I am wired like a cheap house trailer

itching for holocaust with this

frayed cord like an umbilicus.

I bought a fire hat, an axe

batteried the smoke alarm,

turned off the gas, even timed

my escape with a stopwatch,

the wind-up kind,

but nothing grounds me.

I should leave it to someone

who can also fill

my extinguishers with Haldol.