Ablaze

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Ablaze

“Courage is a fire--bullying is smoke.”

--Benjamin Disraeli.

Rust never slumbers, 

but it is a slow meandering 

oxidation process, whereas fire

is the rapid oxidation

(the blink of an eye)

of a material in the exothermic

process of combustion.

Native Americans used to be

stewards of the forests

by controlled burning of the brush

and fallen logs. In our infinite ignorance,

we no longer adhere to this practice.

The headlines today were

The world is on fire and Trump

is playing with matches.

I have always been fascinated by SHC,

spontaneous human combustion--

where a living body, or a recently deceased one,

suddenly bursts into flames, without

any apparent source of ignition.

There have been 200 reported cases

of SHC in the last 300 years.

Usually the bodies have been chronic

alcoholics and usually females.

Their combustion does not set

adjacent materials on fire.

It does burn the hands and feet off,

leaving a pile of greasy, fetid ashes

that emits a very offensive oder.

This certainly gives new meaning

to the common phrase:

the bitch is on fire.

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub