Erumpunt et Operimentum
The people of Pompeii died before the lava passed over their bodies.
Toxic gasses snuck themselves through lungs sharpening like blades,
beating molten rock moving down the hillside The burning pumice
making ruin They could not breathe baptized in ash and soot.
And in the hollowing of the earth between triassic and jurassic eras,
magma stole just a few rare straggling sauropods—
all other dinosaurs met their extinction through too much oxygen.
Hot gas smothering The killer unseen and efficient My body
too boasts of breathing bad in like sulfur could save my sawdust thin
skin worn away buried by all I cannot carry Then only eroded bones
remain In my chest I find fossils shape my lungs around their death
month after month of making lava out of what is only air
Taylor Franson-Thiel
Taylor Franson-Thiel is a Pushcart nominated poet from Utah, now based in Fairfax, Virginia. She received her Master’s in creative writing from Utah State University and is pursuing an MFA at George Mason University. Along with writing, she enjoys lifting heavy weights and reading fantastic books.
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