War Paint
A bonfire burns winter;
the man standing
and stoking the flames
drinks from a flask.
The smoke is sweet
and toxic in equal amounts.
A woman watches
from her kitchen window,
giving names to the shapes she sees.
In the morning
the feral boys
paint their faces
with the fire pit
and battle
the men who burnt their homes.
Dominic Cuthbert is a third year creative writing student at The University of Derby. He is a music columnist for Heart of Glass Magazine. Dominic has been published both online and via print media. When he isn’t writing for his course he’s either working on a poem/short story/potential novel/script or just listening to vinyls. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @D_Cuthbert.