A Small Crematorium Can Only Burn Little Things

Upward facing leopard is a pose that few attempt,
also the schoolyard will seek to hide its red bricks
behind old charcoal stains that rise over hard pent
rust iron doors. Tight shiny coils, a cast door thick

on a handle that requires you to lift. Here was fire
applied to damp papers that needed to be hidden.
Peels lifted by flames curled every dried leaf higher,
each lick hiding a lie in letters. The pale boy bidden

by black habits rakes after days bygone in cool ashes
looking for raised capital alphabets in the palimpsest.
There was one 'A' that outlived fiery janitorial trashes,
left exposed on red brick creases squaring, now best

remembered as a curse. Up to facing a leopard pose
it's the hardest part to face, even just now, I suppose.