Tongue of Fire

In The Tower, Dust begins to take human form and steps into the story she’s been watching unfold. As humanity reaches upward, building monuments to its own ambition, the foundations begin to crack. This chapter marks the moment when creation forgets its source—and Dust learns what it means to be both matter and memory.

Teaching high school poetry brought me back to Charles Bukowski. Thirty years ago, saw him as edgy but cynical. Now, I see something else: a brutal kind of honesty about survival, pain, and what it means to live honestly.