Multiple Choice

after Jose Olivarez

a blue flame—gas-burner

temperament

a simmer

a boil

scarcely kindled

white

biding un-made

amidst blue

seething tendrils

at-the-ready

and I am

(a) livid

(b) heartsick

(c) unquiet

(d) hopeless

(e) everything in between

displaced

darkling whirlwind, uncoiled

a blitz

a raze

the aftermath—a

severing

onto island

of one

held breath

’til another