I snuffed me out / Or I thought I might.

Cross-legged on the floor: burn marks,

Charred / But I

Am melted wax

Seeping into my own /

Damned conscience.

Scorched.

Little boys burn brighter when they / Realise,

Time doesn't stop when you're extinguished.

Nobody waits if you slacken / So

Pack it up, man—

I picked me up / Or at least I tried.

I don't care

If you're burnt out;

Jack, be fucking nimble.

You want to torch this city

Underground. / This time

They will know,

I could not have tried harder.

We are men of our words,

But Dad chose the money.

And his _words? _Collecting dust / Under

A stack of radiology textbooks

And the weight of

Respectability.

And I I screwed me up / I'm a wretched kid.

I'm going to be just like my Daddy When I grow up.

And I- He could've been, should've been A poet.

But he- I'm going to be, I have to be A doctor.

With grades like those, you're gonna go far.

Then why is he so

Stranded?

I'm lighting the match.

Jack, be quick; Those papers won't write themseves.

He says Apple and Tree

Is far too cliché,

But he knows that I didn't fall far.

Man and son, never young:

Both stunted;

Burnt stumps.