What We Choose to See

Your fires start with the sound of the axe splitting wood in the garage.  Only a man who’s in love with me would build me a fire.  I admire your wintered masculinity, the leather gloves you wear as you carry the bundles of split wood into the house, the focus of fire pressed deep into your eyes, the scent of cold ash that escapes from the open glass door of the wood stove, and the splinters that stick like lint to your sweatshirt.  With every fire, you kneel before the wood stove with your back to me: I see the backside of prayer.