Travis Macdonald

If You Can’t Take the Heat, Get Out of the Lava

Soothsay your way out of here.

The volcano has a name you know,

written on the tag of its t-shirt.

The augur’s stone

circuit bathes in the starlight wake

of a prison ship escape pod.

You have to choose: Vesuvius

or the world as lead

glowering ember

ash. Clouds swallow the city

as dawn breaks the billows.