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River out of Africa

Ron Pretty

Mar 01 2012

1 mins

The map of the world was etched into the walls
of the candle, this fat candle burning lower
into its self-made pit; and then awash with wax
began to drown in its own liquifaction

—until it found a way at last to melt a gap
in one pale wall. Immediately, the molten
refugees came pouring out: to stay was to see
the flame snuffed out, to go was to slide

into the dark hoping to settle somewhere cooler,
where refugees could settle undisturbed, a river
out of Africa like the first naked apes becoming
pale and waxen and spreading slowly into the cold.
 

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