Burn Order (a poem)

Thursday, January 22, 2026

When power loses integrity
it doesn’t fall—
it feeds

it learns how to eat
without chewing
how to consume
without sounding hungry

it converts everything beneath it
time
bodies
trust
future
into fuel

then calls the burn
“order”

says this is control
says this is necessary
says this is how things are kept
safe
stable
serious

it says calm down
while striking the match
it says trust the process
while drying the ground

paper signs the flame
procedure blesses it
language lowers its voice
so the heat feels reasonable

loss becomes acceptable
if it’s logged
harm becomes invisible
if it’s spread thin enough

until restraint is gone
not dramatically
quietly
like a guard who stopped showing up
because no one asked anymore

until the center hollows
until leadership becomes echo
until authority is just sound
bouncing around an empty core

until the structure is held up
by absence alone
by what should be there
but isn’t

and still—
it stands

so we stand beneath it
feeling the heat rise
calling the fire
momentum
calling the burn
growth

naming the damage
stability

because stopping
would require admitting
that order was never order

it was ignition
with better grammar

and the burn order
was issued
long ago
by people who would never
have to stand
in the ash