PALMETTO POEM: Charcoal

By Vera Gómez

Charcoal can be found almost anywhere
there has been fire. Among the ash,
dust to dust, among the embers set aglow.
Almost anywhere: in the streak
of teared-lace mascara, in the remnant
of a striked match, in the man cremated.
It is not black, it is not gray. It is mixed
like the child from mother or father.
Or white and black times black.
Charcoal can be found in the BBQ
pits of July feeding us with its smoked
leave behinds, teasing us with its flame
that lights candles, cigarettes, stoves;
that heats skin as I reach to nip it.
The singe a burn that disappears.

Gomez

Vera Gómez is a firm believer in the power of words.  She is a workshop facilitator, performance poet and a teaching poet. She has a collection of poems, Barrio Voices published in 2008, and her work has appeared in State of the Heart: Carolina Writers on the Places They Love, Volume II; Yemassee; KaKaLak: Anthology of Carolina Poets; Millennial Sampler/South Carolina Poetry Anthology; Ties That Bind and Quintet. She lives in Greenville, S.C.