The Burnt Child by W. S. Merwin
Matches among other things that were not allowed never would be lying high in a cool blue box that opened in other hands and there they all were bodies clean and smooth blue heads white crowns white sandpaper on the sides of the box scoring fire after fire gone before
I could hear the scratch and flare when they were over and catch the smell of the striking I knew what the match would feel like lighting when I was very young
a fire engine came and parked in the shadow of the big poplar tree of Fourth Street one night keeping its engine running pumping oxygen to the old woman in the basement when she died the red lights went on burning
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