Author Information
By Fire
The doll’s eyes
Never left me.
My first day on the force
I was awakened to a hell
Known as the World.
Not the world in movies,
Not the world in books,
Not the world of happy endings
And sequels
Just the World.
I shut the gate to the prison
Within the prison,
I cradled the doll—
The evidence—
I told her she was safe now.
But I had to go back up.
I had to be a man
In front of the men.
…But what did that
Even mean anymore?
Some call it a baptism by fire—
But I guess I call it life
In the World I’d met for the first time.
