Eve L. Ewing

Dr. Eve L. Ewing is a sociologist of education and a writer from Chicago. She is the author, most recently, of the poetry collection 1919 and the nonfiction work Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side. Her first book, the poetry collection Electric Arches, received awards from the American Library Association and the Poetry Society of America and was named one of the year's best books by NPR and the Chicago Tribune. She is the co-author (with Nate Marshall) of the play No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. She also currently writes the Champions series for Marvel Comics and previously wrote the acclaimed Ironheart series, as well as other projects. Ewing is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other venues. Source

I come from the fire city

i come from the fire city / fire came and licked up our houses,

lapped them up like they were nothing / drank them like the last

dribbling water from a concrete fountain / the spigot is too hot to

touch with your lips be careful / fire kissed us and laughed / and

even now the rust climbs the walls, red ivy / iron fire and the brick

blossoms florid / red like stolen lipstick ground down to a small

flat earth / stand on any corner of the fire city, look west to death

/ the red sun eats the bungalows / the fire city children watch

with their fingers in their mouths / to savor the flaming hots or

hot flamins or hot crunchy curls or hot chips / they open the fire

hydrants in the fire city and lay dollar store boats in the gutters /

warrior funeral pyres unlit

Published:

2017

Length:

Regular

Literary Movements:

Contemporary

Anthology Years:

2021

Themes:

Identity

Poems of Place