A mended fever

The fire fed
stayed within breaks
gave glow

hugged to unease
without fury
laid low like
cloud descending to fog

pacing like waves
over bodies
in fabricated epidemics
smoked sage by saga

the fume rises
chimneyed through cavities
it stitches a time in nine
lives for a cat's hiss

and the boiling of pots
spat water
sizzled on steel
hunted to disappearance

a mended fever
returned to warm
the equal chills
we call level.