Fireweed
FROM THE ONLINE CHAPBOOK THE JOHN AND MIM POEMS
Fireweed
Miriam Levine
Unlike you
I’m not meant to die.
The wind carries
my seed to burned ground.
When charred stumps cool
I sprout in the ruins,
fringe the cellar holes
and feed on ashes
clumped in the damp,
my raised petals, rose-red,
free of rose canker and black spot,
free of sickness— unlike you.
Yet aren’t there lulls in your sobbing,
aren’t there spells of forgetfulness,
and niches for ashes of your dead?
Of all the names you dare to
give me, there is only one worth
a breath.
The John and Mim Poems
Miriam Levine
2026
The John and Mim Poems is a portrait of a marriage and Miriam Levine’s gift to you.