Evie Shockley

 Playing with Fire

something is always burning, passion, 
pride, envy, desire, the internal organs 
going chokingly up in smoke, as some- 
thing outside the body exerts a pull 
that drags us like a match across sand- 
paper. something is always burning, 
london, paris, detroit, l.a., the neighbor- 

hoods no one outside seems to see until 
they're backlit by flames, when the out-

siders, peering through dense, acrid, 
black-&-orange-rimmed fumes, mis- 
take their dark reflections for savages 
altogether alien. how hot are the london 
riots for west end pearls? how hot in tot- 

tenham? if one bead of cream rolls down 
one precious neck, heads will roll in brix- 
ton: the science of sociology. the mark 
duggan principle of cause and effect: 

under conditions of sufficient pressure— 
measured roughly in years + lead ÷ £s— 
black blood is highly combustible.