Cindergal Converts to Mesmerism

On brush crew in Los Padres, Cindergal begs to work the line. When there, she’s useless. Snot, smoke, ash. A choked axe, Cindergal is slow on her shovel. Her daydream—blasting past Olympic legend Francie Larrieu—almost cost her crew their lives. An electric fence fries a fawn, awakens her. Promoted to torch crew, Cinder lures a blaze with a blaze. Cornered in a deep ravine, Cindergal is ground down footfall by footfall. So she says, “yes.” Her bald-headed crew chief–a zero-sum baby-boomer—proposes, promises to buy her houseboat in the burnt-over quarter of the flood-ravaged east.

Lori Anderson Moseman’s newest poetry collection, All Steel, came out in 2012 from Flim Forum Press. Anderson Moseman is the author of Temporary Bunk (Swank Books), Persona (Swank Books), Cultivating Excess (The Eighth Mountain Press) and Walking the Dead (Heaven Bone Press). Anderson Moseman has a Masters of Fine Art from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a Doctor of Arts from the University at Albany. Her work has appeared in many literary journals, including  Denver Quarterly, Epoch, and Passages North.

One Response to “Cindergal Converts to Mesmerism”

  1. Victoria Boynton says:

    Cinder! Composing beautifully simultaneous with fire tragedy and Susquehanna floods.

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