Cady Hockman

Before I was young my dad conquered fires

Ash birds spoke in the night
of boys who called flame to bed

Montana air is biting coal
but she invites a scourge in the morning

It always sounded strange
how a boy jumping flame
can’t seem to feel his toes

How one day a mother is coaxing up matches
and the next her son turns to cinder

A sun had invaded the western plane
red only looked like an exit

And when my dad arrived home
my mother found forests
smothered in the space of his hands




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Cady Hockman is a 17 year old senior from the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. She is an advocate for compassion and literacy, and a skilled pizza maker. Having developed a fervent interest in poetry, Cady will write until the commencement of Sherlock series 5 or our universe’s heat death (whichever comes first). She extends encouragement and thanks to all that dare to create.