JOSH GLANTZBERG

HUMAN TORCH

Set me on fire.
Let me burn
all kinetic and
Johnny Storm.*

My feet scald
in potmarks
—black in the cold concrete.

I will burst
—monk in protest—
fluid phosphorescence
high above the licks
of my ears.

My eyes will sear
blue and wide,
butane puddles
under kevlar brows.

I am not an abstraction:
still thrumming
wet and humane,
now alive and infernal,

like
     hell just set me free.

* Johnny Storm is the secret identity of the Human Torch, a comic book character.